Subject: RE: Danny Boy banned in pub....
From:
Big Mick
Date: 09 Mar 08 - 05:39 PM
...Before I go, I will say these things about "Danny Boy". Taken on it's own, it's a beautiful song to a lovely air. It's got a challenging range and, IMHO, many who will not sing Danny Boy,cannot. I might want to pay more honor to the song since it was once a solemn unifying anthem of my caste - big-city, working-class Irish America. My own people loved it.
In another circumstance, when McGuigan's father sang it in Belfast before the bout with the Panamanian, it clearly served as a unifying element in that city. Sadly, over the decades it's been abused by the likes of me, though I always try to make a good go of it. Thankfully, I can do it little harm.
Regards,
Danny post of 06 Mar 08 - 01:50 PM in this thread
Funny how this place, with all its characters, knowledge, and views, can affect your opinion on things. Danny C, I hope you know exactly what a pearl of great worth it was you penned into those two paragraphs. It made me hope that one day we can sit down over a pint and just have some conversation. That post, in the pondering of it, sparked a whole conversation yesterday, as I was being interviewed on a PBS talk show. The conversation swung to the reasons, historical, economic, and such, for why St. Pat's has evolved the way it has in this country. There is a pub in Grand Rapids, Michigan where the Irish performers, and others such as Bogle, and Stewart, love to come perform. It is called Quinn & Tuite's. Yesterday we had our annual Irish Family gathering where the families and kids all come to this marvelous place and make memories like I had when I was a kid. The wee lasses and lads step dance, the bands play, the Moms and Dads solve the problems of the world, and go home feeling like they are part of something, a community. A college PBS station set up a camera in the snugs area and was doing an interview with myself and the publican, and the comment came up that this was so different from the other Irish pubs. I pointed out that this is what a pub should be. That the Irish community was about family, music, song, and story, and feeling like you are a part of something. I pointed out that the places he is referring to are really just theme bars, but these rare finds (like Quinn & Tuite's)are a throwback to the time that DannyC refers to.
Often we hear the Irish American referred to in derisive terms, and called things like Plastic Paddys. I guess there is legitimacy to some of that. We find some way to express our identity and sometimes we find that in a tune with words written by an English fella who never stepped foot in Ireland, or a Jewish lad who wrote a kids poem with no idea it would resonate with folks, or a band from Ireland, and become iconic. Our celebrations, in general terms, have folks wearing silly pointed ears and full of stereotypical views of brawling, drunken Irish folks. I have often asked myself how this happened, when for me and the folks in my community, being of the Irish is a part of who we are, and understanding the history, culture, and language of our heritage is paramount. In our community, teaching our children the pride of being the grandchildren of that place, teaching them the values of love, loyalty, and friendship, teaching them to play the instruments, tell the stories, and sing the songs, is a big part of their growing up. I think, going back to the pondering of Danny's two short paragraphs, it lies in how and why we came to this great land of opportunity. Our people came here as indentured servants, or the cast offs of a great hunger, to start our lives at the very bottom of the rung. Our religion was not the dominate one, and we were viewed as little more than a commodity to be used up and cast off. Our lives were controlled by the predudice against us, and the economic forces that sought to use our labor without regard for our well being. But one day a year, the day the Holy Church set aside as the feast day of the Patron of our ancestral home, we could feel good about who we were. And we passed that on to our children. And they passed it on to theirs. And in the passing of the generations, as our people worked themselves out of that bottom place in this land, we lost much of the spiritual tie, and the cultural ties to Ireland. Ireland and being Irish became iconic, and pain of separation from her, and the memory of the conditions that sent us here became a distant memory. And the celebration became something different. But there are those communities out here of folks that clung to their connections with the past, who seek to use their heritage to remind them that the way forward is deeply influened by reflection on the past and understanding the journey and values of a people that got you this far.
So for all that rambling, I apologize. But it comes down to this. I started this thread with a tongue in cheek post, but the miracle of the Mudcat took over and in the posts, especially DannyC's, I have once again had my thinking evolve. The great beauty of the song lies in what it has become, and what it has meant, to the children of Ireland around the world. Its symbolic value, in many cases, is far greater than its message. It has been an anthem for working folks here, struggling to hold on to who they are, and yet doing what they must to allow their families to prosper in a new land.
So off to work I go to put together an interpretation of it, that has the reverance it deserves in its new place in my world. Good man, ya are, DannyC. When I see you, the jars are on me.
But I still ain't singin' The Unicorn unless you show me a pistol....
All the best,
Mick
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sj
