Entry tags:
It being a Lenten Friday
And someone finally remembered this is a ghost story after all.
Entry tags:
We are the makers of music
So let us talk about the music. and the truth is that you cannot talk about Irish music without talking about the history of the Irish and of Irish-Americans.
We start with An Gorta Mor, or the Great Hunger..which is a much more precise description than famine..because it was all artificial after all. And there were millions of people forced out of Ireland to North America. And the Americans met them with..well, less than open arms as it happens. The whole "No Irish Need Apply" thing. Which led to, as it happens, to the hyphen. For this new people, the Irish-Americans would not not let go of their Irish heritage but also at the same time refused to be seen as less than American, even though they were a different religion than the majority of Americans at the time.
Cut forward a hundred years. in the Republic of Ireland makers of traditional music were looked down upon. They were reminders of the crushing poverty and the the repression of the Irish Catholic Church (another gift of the English but that is a different tale.) And then the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, wearing sweaters Mother Clancy had made them, came to New York. And this group of immigrants were accepted with open arms as it were, along with curious ears..and the Irish were saying..that is us? More to follow of course.
We start with An Gorta Mor, or the Great Hunger..which is a much more precise description than famine..because it was all artificial after all. And there were millions of people forced out of Ireland to North America. And the Americans met them with..well, less than open arms as it happens. The whole "No Irish Need Apply" thing. Which led to, as it happens, to the hyphen. For this new people, the Irish-Americans would not not let go of their Irish heritage but also at the same time refused to be seen as less than American, even though they were a different religion than the majority of Americans at the time.
Cut forward a hundred years. in the Republic of Ireland makers of traditional music were looked down upon. They were reminders of the crushing poverty and the the repression of the Irish Catholic Church (another gift of the English but that is a different tale.) And then the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, wearing sweaters Mother Clancy had made them, came to New York. And this group of immigrants were accepted with open arms as it were, along with curious ears..and the Irish were saying..that is us? More to follow of course.