I am Irish-American but we never emphasized that heritage (my father: “I am not a professional Irishman”). We occasionally sang Irish traditional songs and we did celebrate St. Patrick’s Day but that was about that. My mother and I joke about our terrible fate of having no Italian ancestry at all. Anyway, I do love this rendition of “Danny Boy” by Celtic Thunder. It ‘s the kind of performance that starts all the Irish-American women in my family crying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z24sdyl4PBc&list=RDz24sdyl4PBc&start_radio=1
Thank you for sharing that recording. I haven't a drop of Irish blood in me, either, but there is a certain charm about th Irish heritage that is hard to resist! Ha! I haven't a drop of Italian blood, either, but I get to horn in on that via my 100% Italian-descended husband. Now in my family, it was German (Father) and British (Mother), whos best friends in the world were an older couple, both children of Italian immigrants. So I got a lot of Italian growing up, but like you, not much Irish, outside of school and .. music and old movies. And I just love this song. So many recordings of it, there are. Even Elvis Presley recorded it! And ha! He had real Irish ancestry. Who knew?
Karen, that is beautiful! Thank you for posting it. I wanted to add a few vocals to my post last night, but I'd been fighting a health issue all day .. and time ran out. It's a beautiful song altogether.
Wow, Debra! What a great display of musical sleuthing - worthy of Holmes and Watson.
It is curious that Danny Boy – an Irish national anthem, of sorts – is also referred to as Londonderry Air with the “London” attached to Derry, the original name of the city, calling to mind the English “plantation” of Northern Ireland.
I’m sure many readers can empathize with the loss of your husband’s fossil collection, albeit transferred to the area of baseball cards. Unlike later when an entire season of MLB player cards could be purchased in a single set, back in the day youngsters use to collect them by scrounging up nickels to purchase five-card packs at the local variety store. We meticulously tried to collect as many of the players as we could during the spring and summer of each season. I don’t recall ever getting the entire 500 or so cards in that manner. We never envisioned what might be the future value of them. Neither did our moms, who cleaned out the “clutter” in our bedroom closets.
Steve, thank you. I did have to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat for this one, but the search was worthwhile. AND you won't be surprised to learn that Tony's mother also threw out his baseball cards collection. Alas! We could have retired 10 years ago on the income from those "rocks" bits of cardboard!
I am Irish-American but we never emphasized that heritage (my father: “I am not a professional Irishman”). We occasionally sang Irish traditional songs and we did celebrate St. Patrick’s Day but that was about that. My mother and I joke about our terrible fate of having no Italian ancestry at all. Anyway, I do love this rendition of “Danny Boy” by Celtic Thunder. It ‘s the kind of performance that starts all the Irish-American women in my family crying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z24sdyl4PBc&list=RDz24sdyl4PBc&start_radio=1
Thank you for sharing that recording. I haven't a drop of Irish blood in me, either, but there is a certain charm about th Irish heritage that is hard to resist! Ha! I haven't a drop of Italian blood, either, but I get to horn in on that via my 100% Italian-descended husband. Now in my family, it was German (Father) and British (Mother), whos best friends in the world were an older couple, both children of Italian immigrants. So I got a lot of Italian growing up, but like you, not much Irish, outside of school and .. music and old movies. And I just love this song. So many recordings of it, there are. Even Elvis Presley recorded it! And ha! He had real Irish ancestry. Who knew?
Beautiful! Here is one of my favorite choral arrangements of Danny Boy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FzeuT1WFjg
Karen, that is beautiful! Thank you for posting it. I wanted to add a few vocals to my post last night, but I'd been fighting a health issue all day .. and time ran out. It's a beautiful song altogether.
Wow, Debra! What a great display of musical sleuthing - worthy of Holmes and Watson.
It is curious that Danny Boy – an Irish national anthem, of sorts – is also referred to as Londonderry Air with the “London” attached to Derry, the original name of the city, calling to mind the English “plantation” of Northern Ireland.
I’m sure many readers can empathize with the loss of your husband’s fossil collection, albeit transferred to the area of baseball cards. Unlike later when an entire season of MLB player cards could be purchased in a single set, back in the day youngsters use to collect them by scrounging up nickels to purchase five-card packs at the local variety store. We meticulously tried to collect as many of the players as we could during the spring and summer of each season. I don’t recall ever getting the entire 500 or so cards in that manner. We never envisioned what might be the future value of them. Neither did our moms, who cleaned out the “clutter” in our bedroom closets.
Steve, thank you. I did have to put on my Sherlock Holmes hat for this one, but the search was worthwhile. AND you won't be surprised to learn that Tony's mother also threw out his baseball cards collection. Alas! We could have retired 10 years ago on the income from those "rocks" bits of cardboard!
I always thought Roses of Picardy as the more tearful reminder of WWI, but then I heard Ben Webster spin on that melody. Goodness!
Roses of Picardy is great, indeed. Maybe for another day here. So many songs, so little time!
https://share.google/k7odCy8E1KyUYBJtO
Thanks for the share, Robert, by the way!