Off His Rocker

I Read Mike Farragher’s “Off the Record” column in the September 21-27 issue where he seems to take a swipe at repetition of the same songs being played at the Irish ceilis. Well, I thought, “Ah, sure just some well-meant youth barking about the old songs.”

While he lies somewhere between jelly beans and Quaaludes, and myself somewhere between Ben-Gay and Viagra, I knew there was a difference in our likes of music.

I can remember Connie Foley and how he couldn’t leave a hall without singing “The Wild Colonial Boy.” Sometimes a song is memory and memory is life. Better a song to bring us a dream than chemicals.

Sometimes a song is a signature. Brendan Bowyer will always be remembered by “The Hucklebuck,” and didn’t Eddie Fisher make a career out of a song about a cat that got its foot caught in a mouse trap, “Oh My Paw Paw,” or something like that.

Did Mike ever watch that program Do-Wap, songs about the 1950s? The camera would scan the audience and those older folks would be singing every song word by word. No boos about repetition there.

And, just maybe, music is all the same, just cloned a bit different at times. I often thought, was not that man at the square dance who would call out commands like “round and round, swing your partner all around” really the first rapper?

The last part of Mike’s column was sad to see how he attacked the older people he would deal with.

It seems “Off the Record” is now on the record for euthanasia. This guy could write the Preamble for euthanasia for the elders when his X generation makes it law.

In the last part of his column Mike had to take a whack at the Holy Mass, upset at the Gaelic being used at Mass and he having to sit through it.

Well, Mike, when we sat through the Mass in Latin and didn’t understand it we felt blessed, not bored. I hope Mike will remember, sure it’s a short time before young and old shake hands.

I have always saved the Irish Voice, as I go back now and then to enjoy past issues once more. But now I think I have found another use for the page with Mike’s column on it.

I found that the page is the same size as the bottom of me bird cage, so I plan to place it face up with Mr. Farragher’s smiling face there to catch little Liam droppings. And me little bird, Liam, has a deadly aim with his droppings!

Bill Ashe
Corona, California

Willie Lynch Fan

Initially I was quite annoyed reading Mike Farragher’s “Off the Record” article regarding the lack of entertainment at this year’s Irish festival in New Jersey. I can relate to him wanting to bring in more of a younger crowd and current Irish stars.

However, his lack of respect for the Willie Lynch Trio is a sad view. My family and I have been entertained by Willie for many years. Many of my relatives in Ireland who have come to visit me simply love Willie’s style and longevity for providing Irish music.

I think it would be quite ignorant of me to label any type of music in a negative manner since it is only my personal point of view. I think Mr. Farragher had good intentions, but there are still lots of people who still love to hear “Danny Boy” or “Whiskey in a Jar,” and get the same delight time and time again. I am obviously one of them.

Canny O’Neil
Spring Lake, New Jersey

Right On, Mike!

When I read the headline “No Nay Never Again, Please” on Mike Farragher’s column about the state of Irish festivals, I knew I was going to enjoy the article.

The words spoken by Farragher mirror the feelings I’ve had for years. The AOH, a great organization, unfortunately is an old boys club where the median age is in the sixties. I feel they have lost touch with what people are interested in hearing.

There are a lot of great Irish acts that, if they got the chance to play at a festival, would be able to bring a whole new group of people into our Irish community.

I am a musician in my mid-thirties of Irish descent. I still appreciate great Irish trad music, but I have an open mind for progression.

Talented bands like the Ruffians, Flogging Molly, the Dropkick Murphys to name just a few, could add that spark to a diminishing festival scene.

I’m not optimistic of change when no one in the AOH knows who Shane MacGowan is, and they keep serving that bloody corned beef, too.

Keep up the good work, Mike!

John Murray
New City, New York

Nationalist Dignity

I would like to take issue with John Spain’s column “Lack of Unity on Unity” in the issue of October 5-11.

Spain says that Sinn Fein has moved unity to the top of their agenda. It has always been at the top of their agenda. That is how the party was founded 100 years ago.

No one is forcing the Unionists into a united Ireland. We want to persuade them that their future is with the rest of the people on the island so they will be comfortable with that. It will not be easy with the type of leadership they have as they could care less for their own people.

And just because Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern says that we will not see unity in his lifetime does that mean we should drop the subject.

Spain has to insult the people up

North by calling them whingers, violent scroungers and a whole lot of other things. They didn’t ask to brought up like that. If the Unionists had treated the Nationalist community with respect then Sinn Fein would have remained in the wilderness, and all this talk about unity would not have received all this recent publicity.

I recently went to a wedding in Dublin with Northern folk, and these people spent lots of money. They ran out of drink at the hotel. None of it was from welfare, but hard earned cash.

What about all the GAA fans who went to Dublin from the North this summer to spend their money with the rip-off prices? Give us a break, Spain. We are not welfare cheats but will be able to handle ourselves, and you wont have subsidize us.

Brendan Soraghan
Danbury, Connecticut

Questions for Spain

The response of Irish Voice columnist John Spain to the IRA disarmament was sadly predictable and one-sided. The Republican movement and the IRA do not and did not exist in a vacuum.

Does Spain not know of the gross injustices that existed in the North in 1969 regarding education, fair housing and jobs? Does he not remember the civil rights march to Derry met by resistance of the RUC and the violence at Burn Tollet bridge?

Does he conveniently forget the night the Unionists burned down Bombay Street, and then allowed the British troops to instigate Bloody Sunday and the whitewashed investigation by a British inquiry?

Does he forget the peace initiative of 1974 that was undermined by the Reverend Ian Paisley, the young Trimble and the hardliners? Has he never heard of the Diplock Courts and the “dirty war” waged by MI-5?

Does he gloss over the criminalization of the IRA and the resulting Hunger Strikers that showed the true colors of Unionism — just say “no” and “no surrender” to any initiative offered by the other side?

Does Spain not recognize the chutzpah and triumphalism of the Orange Parades, which are present to remind Republicans that they are non-citizens and viewed as non-human?

Does he know that half the causalities of this conflict have been inflicted by Loyalists? Does he not realize that the Protestant paramilitaries have refused to disarm and even today threaten Catholics?

Does he not know that Unionism offers no positive agenda for governing, other than to ensure their own power and dominance? Does he not recognize that when Republican lawyers use the law that they are murdered by the Loyalists? For once, Spain, be fair.

Dr. Patrick Berger
St. Louis, Missouri