It was always the Emerald City for the Irish and it is fitting that the ultimate tribute to two of Ireland’s finest will be in the Big Apple because nothing compares to New York for Sinead and Shane.
One who knows is my oul’ mucker, showbiz writer par excellence and party companion of Sinead and Shane, Eugene Masterson of the Sunday World who affectionately called them a couple of rascals.
Of course 2023 will go down as a particularly poignant year, personally for losing my Dear Old Mammy.
But for all of an Irish or Irish Diaspora disposition after we lost Sinead and Shane.
And in Ireland’s biggest city, no, not Dublin but New York, it was felt hard too and not just on account of Shane’s standard A Fairytale of New York.
It is apt then that the Big Apple should have arranged a special commemoration.
Swigging a bottle of lager before launching into his song and banging it down at the end before gargling a word of acknowledgement to me as I kept them lined up.
The Pogues’ oul rogue
Party time: The Pogues
Shane MacGowan was for so many of us Fiftysomething the soundtrack of our youth, the go-to artist and band to pogo to on the Union dancefloor.
And, of course, like all of the most treasured of artists, he is transgenerational.
And many will see it as poignant that he should pass over to the other side as Christmas festivities get into full swing.
But it was as the lead singer of the band which fused the most unlikely bedfellows of Irish trad music and punk for which he will go down in music history as a pioneer.
Son of the oul’ sod
Energy drink: Shane MacGowan
Of course, Shane was like me and millions, and this is where the link ends part of the great Diaspora, a son of a son (or daughter) of the sod.
Of those who had, like my Dear Old Mum and my Dad, whose own mum and his ancestors had taken the boat across to Britain.
Few because of the poor state of the economy back in the homeland could make a permanent move back to Ireland.
But they held the Irish culture, the politics, their nationalism, the song, the dance and the craic close to their hearts.
And pass it on to the new land they found themselves in which is why The Pogues became celebrated in London and across Britain.
From New York to the world
Fiesta time: The fun boys
Of course, it is poignant that Fairytale of New York should be the ultimate Pogues standard as the bond formed between Ireland and America grows stronger year by year.
And underlined by American President Joe Biden who made an emotional return to the land of his fathers last year.
The unruffled ruffian with the broken glass teeth and the gravelly voice has gone and a million jukeboxes will blast out his hits across Irish bars around the world.
Farewell Shane MacGowan, the last of the Irish Rovers.
As he joins Jimmy from Sally Maclennane ‘who took the road for heaven in the morning.’
Baby, you’re a firework, come on let your colours burst… as they might have sung back in 1605 to mark Guy Fawkes Day.
Well because we’re fortunate enough that Katy Perry lives in our age.
Then that’s what we all do when the sparklers, rockets, Catherine Wheels and Roman Candles fizz through the air.
In the UK in those areas where people don’t celebrate the burning of Catholic traitors or have got past 17th century history.
And just like a light show then today, Guy Fawkes Day, is a national fireworks spectacular.
Of course, not everybody, the passing of a queen apart, is obsessed with British history.
So we’re taking a look at where and when the world lets their colours burst.
Fire Eid
Sparkling: Eid
Eid, the Muslim world: And as you would expect in the land of the world’s biggest building, Burj Khalifa, Dubai reachest highest in the Muslim world for Eid.
There are also numerous shows and music concerts and the amusement parks go into overdrive.
Jewel of India
Light up: Diwali
Diwali, India: Now if we in Britain think that our skies are spectacular at this time of year.
Then it is nothing compared to India.
Diwali, the festival of light, has just been dimmed for another year.
And I guess that’s what The Big Fiddle is all about, the largest in the world.
Mad George’s wife’s town
Skip to it: King George
Charlottetown, named for Mad King George’s wife, has echoes of an olde world, with what looks suspiciously like jarvie racing (they call it harness racing) at the Red Shores Horsetrack.
Don’t hang around though, get a gallop on, because you know the ship won’t wait for you.
And the Big Apple
Laddie and Lady: On the Hudson
Whether you’re a prince or a New York Princess.
The Big Apple is waiting and there’s no time to waste.
Hoppy 4th July… let’s celebrate American Independence Day the way the founding fathers would have, with good ale.
Because while we think we can drink we have nothing on Washington, all the Adamses, Franklin and Co.
Colonial Americans drank roughly three times as much as modern Americans, primarily in the form of beer, cider, and whiskey.
And uisce beatha (Gaelic for water of life) is probably what the Spirit of 76 was all about.
Our old friends at Westward Whiskey in Portland, Oregon, have already been on.
And they’ve been showing off their wares with a new product for Independence Day.
And they remind us (OK, we didn’t know) that they begin their process by brewing an artisanal American Ale from scratch.
They use locally malted barley, ale yeast, and a slow, low temperature fermentation.
We love our American whiskies and we will return to them in due cours.
But to make the tortured pun in the title of today’s blog work it’s all about the beer on today’s Independence Day.
Drunken Sam
A bucket of booze: In boozy Boston
Sam Adams: Now the great Bostonian rabble-rouser spent so much time swigging ale in radical public houses that his enemies nicknamed him Sam the Publican.
Sam, of course, took it as a badge of honour, and the Bostonians repaid him by putting his badge on their beers.
And whether you’re keeping the red flag flying here, celebrating the Internationale or just twirling around a maypole it’s Mayday Bravo today.
It was, of course, an Irishman, Jim Connell, who came up with the emotive words in 1889 to go with the tune O Tannenbaum.
He had been travelling by train, where you can do a lot of your thinking, in London.
So to mark May Day we’ll revive our Rainy Days and Songdays occasional series with these May Day tunes.
Way to go, Joe
Folk champion: Joan Baez
Joe Hill – Joan Baez: And this workers anthem relates to a union leader, framed on a murder charge and executed in Salt Lake City.
But the organiser stands for everyman and of course returns to the narrator in a dream.
And in typical American storytelling style it covers the geography of the whole country… from San Diego up to Maine.
Lennon doctrine
Comrade Lennon: And Jimmy in Prague
Working Class Hero – John Lennon: They were more Lennon than Lenin in Prague during Soviet rule.
When they would congregate at the Lennon wall to protest.
Lennon, the Working Class Hero from Liverpool, has influenced as many if not more around the world from Hamburg to New York and beyond.
Tennessee tunes
Music town: Memphis, Tennesse
Sixteen Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford: This ditty of a song with the catchy refrain derives from Kentucky’s Merle Travis in 1947.
And the line ‘You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt” came from a letter written by Travis’s brother John.
We’ve taken Tennessee Ford’s 1955 version which hit the top of the Billboard charts and was inducted into the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry.
The New Boss
Something to say: The Who
Won’t Get Fooled Again – The Who: And the Cockney Four whose shows were as much about menace as music nail it here.
And they captured the working class fascination of the Mods in Quadrophenia in their odyssey to Brighton.
But it’s this anthem against The Man and its clarion call: ‘Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.’
Lady Donna
Summer time: Donna Summer
She Works Hard For The Money – Donna Summer: Now you might not associate the Queen of Disco with a societal message.
But the New Yorker penned this after seeing a toilet attendant asleep on her shift at a post-Grammy event in West Hollywood.
And a reminder too for all that while music is replete with messages of working men, working women have had it just as bad and worse.
