I was doing a session in New York with Brian Conway a few years ago. There was a tap-tap-tap on my shoulder and there stood a middle-aged, somewhat inebriated American man. He asked me to sing "The Soldier's Song." I don't know all the words so I asked Brian to play it on the fiddle. He said he would and we launched into it at the unusual time of 11:15PM.

It was the busiest hour of the night and money was flying across the bar and the 2 bartenders were raking it in. But this was a very Republican bar with a 50% native Irish clientle so everything stopped when "The Soldiers Song" was played. The bartenders stood at attention and the non-Irish crowd got the idea something profound was happening and quieted down too. No one asked why a national anthem was being played halfway into the night and 5 hours before the bar closed.

After the playing stopped, everything returned to normal in a matter of seconds and it was just after that I got the tap-tap-tap again and my American friend asked for "The Soldiers Song" once more. A little miffed, I told him we'd just played it. "No, no," he said, "my name is O'Hanlon. I'm just gone sixteen."

All the best,
Dan Milner