"My beef is with people at sessions in US bars singing overtly political Irish songs. Irish politics is not part of the experience of anyone outside Ireland and I don't feel I or any other American has any business singing about it. We can sing about lost love, no matter whether the song comes from Ireland or Mississippi, but we should leave the immortalization of Irish heroes to the Irish."


What? What percentage of Americans has Irish blood..at least 25%. So it certainly would be part of their experience. But if they have 0%, so what. They still have universal heartbreak from wars and rebellions and someone somewhere in their own families, perhaps in their own experience, had their head bashed in by some tyrant. They have every right to sing these songs, whether they understand them, the history, etc. or not. And I have a right to sing South African songs and Hawaiaan songs, etc., as long as I do not disrepect them..although I will put in a disclaimer that if they are very sacred songs then I should not. I can sing O Freedom. I can sing the Marsellaise. If I knew Polish or Ukranian I could sing their songs. I can sing Die Deganzen sind frie???.

It is like saying I can only breathe certain air. No can do. Sing what you like. mg