I really didn't have time to read every post on this thread, so I apologize if I'm repeating something that has already been posted.

A locally popular young Celtic singer/musician named Shay Veno formed a group called the Clare Voyants that used to perform around Phoenix, AZ. They're no longer playing as a group but Shay Veno still performs as a solo act. He likes to compose as well as sing, and while with the Clare Voyants wrote this piece he called "Danny Boy (RIP)". It expresses the sentiments of those who have had it up to "here" with the traditional song and the whole counterfeit pseudo-Irish scene. It's not sung to the same tune as the real Danny Boy, but has a few good lines and a rollicking tune. It goes:

DANNY BOY (R.I.P.)

1) I met him in a pub one night,
   In a crowd of well-to do's.
   He had a claddagh on each finger
   And a shamrock on each shoe.
   And when he said "top 'o the mornin'
   My heart was filled with dread...
   But he said his name was "Danny Boy"
   So I shot him in the head.

Chorus:
       Raise up a cheer and lift your pints
       And hold them way up high;
       And sing a song of tragedy
       Beneath the Irish sky.
       From the glens the pipes are callin',
       But he never will reply,
       'Cause I buried Danny Boy
       Beneath the Fields of Athenry.
       Too-ra-loo, too-ra-lay,
       I thought I might dump him in Galway Bay.
       Too-ra-loo, too-ra-lie,
       But I buried Danny Boy beneath the Fields of Athenry.

2) Well the Garda, they came upon me
   And they took away me gun
   And a hush fell o'er the crowd
   When they saw what I had done.
   Said the Garda, "God forgive me
   For I'm sure in hell to burn,"
   Then he shot poor Danny Boy again,
   To make sure he won't return.

Chorus:

3) Now some call me a hero
   And some call me a fiend,
   But the still sing his sad auld song
   While drinking beer dyed toxic green.
   But my sentence it was commuted.
   It seems I'm off scot-free.
   Well I think I'll have another pint
   And wait for Michael Flatley.

Chorus:


OK. The lyrics are only so-so, but it has a real catchy tune. And personally, I like the old standard songs (well, most of them) and see nothing really wrong with a certain degree of affectation of Irishness. I see most of it as an intended compliment on the part of many who aren't Irish, but wish they were.

Reiver 2