☘️ St Patrick’s Day ☘️

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As anyone who is Irish or has Irish connections can tell you, today is St Patrick’s Day, which is celebrated wildly by so many. I’m not Irish, but I have always liked a lot of the music that comes from the country, and for the past couple of years I have marked the occasion by playing some tunes. The selections were almost entirely different, but they covered some great music and it seemed like a plan to give you a highlights package of some of my favourites from the two posts. Are you ready…

I’ll start with the one song that was played on both previous occasions, as I think it gets us off to a rousing start. It is a meeting made in Heaven between two of my favourites. Van Morrison and The Chieftains got together in 1988 to make an album called Irish Heartbeat, and this is the opening track:

That is a fabulous album, which I bought at the time – in those days I got a lot of my music on cassettes, and I wore out the tape on this one! Highly recommended, if you don’t already know it.

My next one is a standard of Irish music, so much so that I was spoilt for choice on which version to include. It is well known as an Irish folk song but, at the risk of upsetting folk purists, I went for a rock version and am playing that again this year:

Even after all these years I still can’t watch any of Thin Lizzy’s videos without feeling the loss of Phil Lynott, taken from us at just 36. But the music lives on. This was released as a single in November 1972 and became the band’s breakout hit, reaching #6 in the UK and spending a phenomenal 17 weeks at #1 in their native Ireland.

When you think about Irish folk music over the past fifty or sixty years, there are several names that really stand out. You’ve already heard from some of them, and here is another. It just wouldn’t be right to leave these guys out, as they don’t come much more Irish than them. To join up the dots, the opening track on side two of the Irish Heartbeat album was a version of a song which has been sung as an accompaniment to children skipping in playgrounds for well over a century. Here is the Dubliners’ version of it:

That comes from The Dubliners’ album Live At Vicar Street, which was recorded at a concert in July 2006 and reached #53 in Ireland. They had first released it on their debut album, The Dubliners With Luke Kelly, all the way back in 1964. The song is very much a standard of Irish folk music, though it has travelled far around the world: versions with different locations in the lyrics were known in England in the 19th century, for example.

Another favourite Irish band for me is The Pogues. Typically, their version of a traditional Irish song is taken at breakneck speed, and this collaboration with The Dubliners is fantastic:

I thought I’d take a bit of a breather now, before the crescendo of the finale. I played this one a couple of years ago and love it now as much as I ever have:

This isn’t one of Christy Moore’s own songs – it was written by Jimmy MacCarthy – but it is, simply, a piece of musical magic and beauty.

My final song selection for today was actually written and originally performed by an American, Steve Earle, but the famous accordion player, Sharon Shannon, played on that recording and was instrumental (see what I did there?) in getting together this wonderful celebration of the joy of music, and it couldn’t be more Irish. This is such a great way to close the songs:

I do have one final video for you, though. Again, it is one I have played before but not on St Patrick’s Day. This is a piece that became a phenomenon after it was included as the half time entertainment in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, which was held in Dublin. Normally I would travel a long way to avoid that show, but this one turned out to be an exception. Our younger daughter was around two and a half, and had been having trouble getting to sleep. We did a deal with her: if she came downstairs to watch the show for a while she would then be a good girl and go back to bed. Yeah, right! But that explains why I was sitting on our sofa, cuddling an impish bundle of mischief, when this came on the tv:

The music of Anuna, the lovely Jean Butler with Michael Flatley, the man who makes Bono look as though he doesn’t have an ego. It was such a huge and welcome surprise when that happened and, as I am sure you know, the show they built around it has propelled them to worldwide fame. That seems to be a good way to close for today, I think.

Wherever you are, if you are celebrating St Patrick’s Day I hope you have a fabulous time – and you have the whole weekend for recovery time! 🎶☘️

45 thoughts on “☘️ St Patrick’s Day ☘️”

  1. Happy St. Patrick’s Day! A wee bit late as you might say 🙂 But it is one of my favorite days of the year, and this post does it justice.

    Every song is a classic, and I listened to each one to the end. I’ve seen a few of the videos before, but the collaboration between the Dubliners and the Pogues was new to me, and it was fantastic. Shane MacGowan is a musical force…

    And watching Riverdance was a great way to end things. I was not aware of Mr. Flatley having a bit of an ego…

    I’ll be browsing through a few more of your posts to get caught up; I hope you have been well.

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    • Good to see you again, Jim. I’m not too bad thanks and hope all is good with you. Maybe we’ll see you blogging again soon?

      Glad you enjoyed the music. Just look up Jean Butler’s comments about Flatley and you’ll see what his ego is like!

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  3. I love all these songs, and I remember going to see Riverdance when we visited Dublin. I also remember reading that Jean Butler, after all that Riverdancing, now takes 2 hours every morning to unlock her knees!

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    • I’m glad you enjoyed them, Stevie. You were lucky to see Riverdance in the flesh, something I never managed. I knew she’d retired from dancing in 2010 but didn’t know her knees were that bad! A funny thing I found out doing background reading for this was that though she and Flatley had Irish parents they were both born and grew up in the US, after their parents had emigrated. And from an interview I read it seems she really couldn’t stand him!

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  4. I had to come back this morning to finish listening and to watch Riverdance twice just to hear Katie McMohan her voice is fabulous so haunting…the Pogues are one of my favourites too some great tunes Clive, Happy St Patricks Day xx

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  6. Seems I’ll be feeling green after dis Patricks Day; reasons for the situation remain fluid.
    (My wife works in elder care- or whatever this years term for old folks home is- and St Patricks Day is always a ‘dress in green and get out the music,’ be it CD or live, and everyone joins in and enjoys it.)

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  15. I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in me but I love St. Patrick’s Day. Van Morrison and The Chieftains are two of my favourites as well. So great to see them together. A superb version of Whiskey in the Jar. All the songs you chose are great. But I think we can’t go wrong with Irish music. I also have never seen the original Riverdance, so that was a great addition. Happy St. Patrick’s Day ☘️

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    • I’m glad you enjoyed them all, Darlene, and that you’ve now seen the original Riverdance performance. I only added that in at the last minute, too! Irish music has given us so much enjoyment over the years. Happy St Patrick’s Day to you too ☘️

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