FAIQ #8 What’s Your Favourite Irish Song?
A: Sheena Was a Punk Rocker
Why do I have to have a favourite Irish song? What’s your favourite American song?
In the Irish trad music sense, which may or may not be what you mean, Raglan Road is hard to better - because if you went to my school you left knowing the poetry of Patrick Kavanagh, and somehow still liking it even though you were a teenager from Dublin and he was a culchie whose bank of youth was burgled by the stoney grey soil of Monaghan.
And because of the presence of Luke Kelly:
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I can’t agree more. Luke Kelly singing Raglan Road is just the best. The way he sits amongst that “stiff’ Tv set and then just looses himself in his song is remarkable. His big voice fills the air and he doesn’t even have the melody to help him, just the accompanment of the banjo and guitar. Everyone on “Idol” should study this and watch the master at work. Your Luke Kelly site doesn’t have anything on it only Damien Dempsey. Am I doing something wrong?cnm
cnn, I could listen to Luke Kelly sing anything.
I presume you’re referring to the “Luke Kelly” category here on Irish KC and like all categories it simply contains whatever posts I have marked as belonging to it.
I often forget to mark posts as being in the category they should be, and other times you will find posts that bear only a slight relevance to the category - like the Damien Dempsey post you refer to which is in the Luke Kelly category because of a reference to him. There should be 6 posts at the moment in that category, and all of them should have some reference and possibly a link to stuff about Luke Kelly.
For what it’s worth, I also think that more than anybody today - although he’s a different style of vocalist - I feel Damien bears a kind of comparison to Luke Kelly in terms of impact, ethos, and general presence.
But yes I do need many more Luke Kelly posts - and believe me, I’m working on it.
Luke Kelly is a pleasure to listen to, singing, well, anything.
Raglan Road is beautifully done, as is one of my favourites, Scorn Not His Simplicity. I have heard other artists sing it, but nobody sings it with as much heart, as much passion as Luke.
As for Patrick Kavanagh. It still feels like they beat that stuff into you in secondary school for the leaving cert. Not that I am complaining about it. I’ve learned that when you have no sy in it, just shut up and learn it.