Rock Music Invades Brigadoon
The Kansas City Star reported yesterday that a Leawood Park performance of the famous musical Brigadoon had to compete with rock and country music from nearby residents.
It lasted half an hour until the police said please turn that down, and the story is that it was just a party rather than any kind of protest as originally believed, however that’s not why I’m telling you about it.
I’m telling you about it because the Star refers to Brigadoon as an Irish village. The mythical village of Brigadoon is Scottish. In Scotland. On the island of Great Britain. There’s a sea between Ireland and Scotland. Despite some people in the U.S. treating them as the same country - called CelticLand or something - they really are different countries. It would be like me calling the USA Haiti, which I just might start doing.
Have to say though, the notion of any kind of music interfering with the sound of bagpipes is kind of funny.
It’s not as funny as the last time I heard Brigadoon being referred to in Kansas City in an Irish context.
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
A good example of this kind of mix-up in reverse was in the film “In Bruges” when Colin Farrell’s character socked a Canadian thinking he was a Yank. But it’s still a whole lot easier to confuse Canucks and Yanks than the Irish and the Scots if you’re paying even the slightest attention.
I’d also draw a distinction between somebody (real or fictional) confusing accents, and a person in a position of influence, such as a journalist, not researching facts about countries and therefore spreading mistakes.
Personally I was never bothered by somebody guessing my accent was Scottish rather than Irish - since there’s no great reason for them to know the difference unless they’ve heard them a lot. But facts about a country’s literature, language, sport, history, etc. can all be researched properly and verified before committing to print, website, blog, poster, sign, tea-towel, etc.