stupid celtic thunder....

[wesw]

well I d been out getting my jeep in the garage, preparing to get it up on jackstands so I can figure out what s wrong with it. so, I come in a few minutes ago to grab a sammich and a piece of pie, flip on the tube and see Celtic Thunder on PBS. now, I like a good song as much as the next fella, so I munched on my pie and listened, there was this young blonde fellow singing a sweet song. i slowly realized it was a song about the irish struggle for freedom, and the toll on the young men and the irish people as whole. the troubles, in other words.

the chorus went: i want to take you to the island, and trace your footprints in the sand.

the rest, tho sung sweetly, was pretty sad. twisted wreckage on main street and young men in ditches and whitewashing slogans on our shipyard walls and such.

then the fellow sings, don t listen to me, i didn t mean to sing no sad song.

well, i wish that that was the first line of the song, and that i had paid attention and not listened, because how is a fella supposed to fix his jeep while he is crying?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Ah, but there's nothing like the old favourites... such as these excerpts are taken from:

They wrote: "Here lies a true Irish soldier,
Who was shot by a Black-and-Tan gun,
And now we are back in old Dublin, our victory over and won,
We think of our comrades we buried under God`s rising sun


My only son was shot in Dublin,
Fighting for his country bold,
He fought for Ireland, and Ireland only,
The harp, the shamrock, green white and gold



On the twentieth day of November, the day that the Tans left Macroom.
they were loaded in two Crossley tenders not knowing that they'd meet their doom
But when they came to Kilmichael they suddenly came to a stop
For they met with the boys of the column Who made a clean sweep of the lot
So here's to the boys of Kilmichael, those brave lads so gallant and true
Who fought 'neath the green flag of Erin and conquered the red, white and blue.



I met with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand
And he said "How's poor old Ireland and how does she stand?"
"She's the most distressful country that ever yet was seen
For they're hanging men and women there for Wearing of the Green



Oh, I am a merry ploughboy and I plough the fields all day
Till a sudden thought came to my head, that I should roam away
For I'm sick and tired of slavery since the day that I was born
And I'm off to join the IRA and I'm off tomorrow morn

And we're all off to Dublin in the green, in the green
Where the helmets glisten in the sun
Where the bayonets flash and the rifles crash
To the rattle of a Thompson gun

[Lord Jim]

I actually do a pretty good rendition of this one (as I'm sure I mentioned before, back in my college days I made a little coin singing Irish Reb music in bars with a guitar playing girlfriend...frequently didn't agree with the sentiments expressed, but I loved the passion of the music):



ETA:

Tell us how you met the Zulus down in Boer Land...

How you bravely faced each one, with your 16 pounder guns...

[MajGenl.Meade]

Tell us more about why you had a guitar play your girlfriend? Was it the shape? Couldn't you get a girl to go?