'Danny Boy' Banned in New York Pub for Entire Month of March

Fox News ^ | Wednesday, March 05, 2008 | (no byline)

[TonyRo76]

It's depressing. It's not usually sung in Ireland for St. Patrick's Day. Its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil.

Those are only some of the reasons a Manhattan pub is giving for banning the song "Danny Boy" for the entire month of March.

"It's overplayed, it's been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time, and it's more appropriate for a funeral than for a St. Patrick's Day celebration," says Shaun Clancy, who owns Foley's Pub and Restaurant, just off Fifth Avenue opposite the Empire State Building.

The 38-year-old, who started bartending when he was 12 at his father's pub in County Cavan, promises a guest free Guinness if he or she sings any other traditional Irish song at the pub's March 11 pre-St. Patrick's Day karaoke party. On other nights, guests will be rewarded with a surprise.

Not everyone agrees.

[[snip]]

[TonyRo76]

» ...an old Irish song called "The Derry Air"...

LOL!!!

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

I just sent this off to friends in Derry.....

[glorgau]

Sort of like the "No Stairway to Heaven" sign in Wayne's World.

[Disambiguator]

I think this song was a theme in one of the episodes of “Jeeves and Wooster” (starring Hugh Laurie of “House”, for those of you unfamiliar with the show). Same deal, the song was overplayed.

[endthematrix]

Free Bird!

[tflabo]

Ahhh lighten up..Danny Boy is a cool song. Want a bummer of a sad tune? how about Amazing Grace played on a bagpipe...now thats a funeral dirge heart-ripper of a song.

[lawnguy]

Remember in Wayne's World the sign in the guitar store

No Stairway to Heaven!!

[Jeff Chandler]

Londonderry Aire

[Secret Agent Man]

I liked the song Peter sang on “Family Guy” about “Our Drunken Irish Dads”...y’know when he found HIS father and drank him under the table:

Oh, he doesn’t smell like Irish Spring,
And he never taught me anything,
But still I slap my chest and sing -
Of My Drunken Irish Dad.

Oh, his face looks like a railroad map,
And he never shuts his freakin’ trap...
But all the ladies catch the clap
From your Drunken Irish Dad.

Ask a Hennessey, Tennessey, Morrison,
Shaughnessy, Riordan and Rooney...
They’ll tell you the same
McNulty, Mulrooney, and Connor and Clooney,
All feel the same mixture of pride and of
shame.

Finnegan, Hannigan, Kelly, and Flanagan.
Look to the ground while their dad passes by
Cafferty, Rafferty, Joyce and O’Lafferty,
Fight for his honor and then start to cry!

Oh, we Irish lads are all infirm,
And our moods infect us like a germ
‘Cause we’re all the spawn of a pickled sperm...

(Spoken) And we don’t tan well either.

...From a Drunken Irish Dad!!

[Proud_USA_Republican]

Harry Conick Jr. did an outstanding jazzed up version of Danny Boy in the movie Memphis Belle.

[Blacksheep]

I thought the Irish author was unknown and that there was an English version (words) nothing like the Irish one.

[Blacksheep]

http://www.standingstones.com/dannyboy.html
I was wrong here is a website with the sad history.

[vkevt]

The best Danny Boy I’ve ever heard was done by Jackie Wilson in the sixties on the Brunswick label. You can still hear it on the greatest hits album. Great,great singer .

[Hugin]

It’s a pretty song (even if it is written by an Englishman), but I prefer this one...

http://minstrelboy.blogspot.com/2005/03/lyrics-to-minstrel-boy.html

[mkjessup]

I think this song was a theme in one of the episodes of “Jeeves and Wooster” (starring Hugh Laurie of “House”, for those of you unfamiliar with the show). Same deal, the song was overplayed.

*Ping* to Mr. Jeeves!

(just thought there might be some relation? ;)

Happy St Patrick's Day! (in advance) :)

[bd476]

If the British penned song "Danny Boy" bothers the barkeep, then he would likely be deeply grieved to learn that Ireland's Patron Saint, Patrick was born in Wales.



Britannia.com

St. Patrick was a Welshman.

On March 17th, when St. Patrick's Day is widely celebrated in so many communities in the United States (where much more fuss is made than is found in Ireland), most Americans assume that Patrick was an Irishman. It is not so.

Though Patrick's birthplace is debatable, most scholars seem to agree that he was born in the area of southeastern Scotland known as Strathclyde, a former Celtic kingdom and Welsh-speaking at the time. (However, a few scholars continue to regard St. David's in Pembrokeshire as the saint's birthplace; the tiny city was formerly directly in the path of missionary and trade routes to Ireland).

When the city of Rome fell to the invading Goths under Alaric, Roman Britain, which had experienced hundreds of years of comparative peace and prosperity, was left to its own defenses under its local Romano-British leaders. One of these may have been a tribal chieftain named Arthur, who seems to have held off the invaders for a while. Centuries of constant warfare, however, meant that the majority of the British kingdoms eventually crumbled under the onslaught of Germanic tribes.

More than two hundred years of fighting between the native Celts, brave but always completely disorganized, and the ever-increasing number of highly organized and disciplined German settlers eventually resulted in Britain sorting itself out into three distinct areas: the Britonic West, the Teutonic East and the Gaelic North. These areas later came to be identified as Wales, England and Scotland, all with their very separate cultural and linguistic characteristics. (Ireland, of course, remained Gaelic: many of its peoples migrated to Scotland, taking their language with them to replace the native Pictish).

Many scholars believe that Patrick (Patricius or Padrig) was born in the still Welsh-speaking Northern Kingdom of Strathclyde of Romano-Brythonic stock around 385 AD at a place called Bannavem Taberniae (Banwen). His father was a deacon, Calpurnius. Not much is known of Patrick's early life, but it is believed he was captured and sold into slavery in Ireland. Escaping to Gaul, he then underwent religious instruction under Germanus and returned to Ireland to join other early missionaries, probably settling in Armagh. In his Confessio, a spiritual biography, Patrick describes his early adventures. His seventh century biographers claimed that he converted all of Ireland to Christianity. Other Information concerning his life comes from the Latin, "The Life of St. David", written in the late 11th century by Rhigfarch (Rhygyfarch) but supplemented by Geraldus Cambrensis around 1200.

In "The Life", Patrick is told of coming to Wales as a bishop and vowing to serve God at Glyn Rhosyn (now St. David's). But, he was warned in a dream that the place was reserved for someone who would arrive thirty years later. He was then shown Ireland in the distance by an angel as he stood on a rock called "the seat of St. Patrick." Patrick's mission was to evangelize the distant land, a task that he carried out in a remarkably short period.

St. Patrick Was a Welshman

[driftless2]

As a visitor to the Milwaukee Irish Fest since its inception in 1981, I would venture to say that I’ve heard the song sung by traditional, REAL, Irish musicians only ONE!!! time. They don’t consider it a real Irish folk song. However I personally love the song and wish I could sing it better.

[kalee]

http://www.cranfordpub.com/langan/Ned_Hills.htm

One of my favorites.

[magslinger]

Tom Lehrer’s “Irish Ballad”?

[Mila]

As the proud decendant(father’s side) of some Kellys, O’Donohoes,McDonalds,Harrigans,Burkes and O’Faolains, I thank you for posting that. I can’t wait to share it.

[shaft29]

In college we always celebrated St. Patty’s day at a pub called Smokey Joe’s. We started drinking at 1pm and closed the place up at 2am.

We sang Danny Boy at least 50 times.

Great song to party to because if you were willing to sing this song in front of other guys the babes thought you were so cool and sensitive.

I scored every time and I have a face only a mother could love.( sad to admit, they were usually double baggers)

[Barb4Bush]

Was that the Smoky Joe’s on the University of Penn’s campus in Philadelphia?

[Tax-chick]

an old Irish song called "The Derry Air"...

Or, as we Orange folk say, "The Londonderry Air."

Are you going to sing for a Guinness, Frank?

[Barb4Bush]

I love the song “The Minstrel Boy”, too. I always thought it should be the Irish National Anthem instead of “A Solider’s Song”.

[Frank Sheed]

I’ll not have Guinness at that pub! Me cousin, Frank (would you believe?) has a son named “Danny” and he cries like a baby every time that song is sung. To think, not likin’ a song about a son going off to war!

I could sing plenty of songs by the “Chieftains” or the “Clancys” but I’d prefer not to.

I choose me pubs carefully.

Himself

[Tax-chick]

I have a Danny, too (sniff, sniff).

I suppose you’ll be having your Guinness elsewhere, then!

[Snickersnee]

... how about Amazing Grace played on a bagpipe...now thats a funeral dirge heart-ripper of a song.

In 2005, I attended the funeral of a young 116th Inf Soldier killed in Afghanistan. The services were in Winchester, Va., and the local Police and Fire Pipe Band tuned up. I was expecting "Amazing Grace," but got something even more devastating:

"Oh, Shennandoah.... "

I defy you to remain dry-eyed under those circumstances.

[Tax-chick]

bagpipery in post 27

[shaft29]

Right on.Right on.

[Frank Sheed]

True, true. At Sean Murphy’s with the lads.

And I’ll be singing, “The Wild Rover,” “The Holy Ground,””Whiskey in the Jar,” and “Seven Drunken Nights” among others.

And “Danny Boy” as well. (sniff)

[Dionysius]

Then there was Conway Twitty’s rock version from the early ‘60s. You talk about an upbeat “Danny Boy”!

[Tax-chick]

I’ll probably be having red wine with Der Prinz. We can watch “The Quiet Man” again.

[ladyjane]

Depressing? “Danny Boy” is too depressing? It’s a good thing they’re not singing “Grace.” Now that is depressing.

In Boston the song they need to ban, or at least limit, is the Boston College fight song. Around noon time in the pubs on the 17th they sing it every 20 minutes. By evening it’s every 5 minutes.

“The Boys of Kilmichael” is my personal fav.

[Frank Sheed]

Bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-biddy-biddy-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-bum-
biddy-biddy-bum-bum...

“Impetuous!”
“PRO-HI-Bition! Ugh!”

[Tax-chick]

“Homeric!”

[Tax-chick]

Here’s one of my favorite songs:

http://celtic-lyrics.com/forum/index.php?autocom=tclc&code=lyrics&id=284

[reg45]

“About a maid I’ll sing a song ....”

[reg45]

And when the brit girl was naughty she was spanked on her London derriere.

[Tax-chick]

LOL!

[magslinger]

“About a maid I’ll sing a song ....”

That's the one. If you know that much, you'll know why I didn't post the whole song.

[Kozak]

Wisconsin’s Motto:

“Come smell our dairy air”

[reg45]

It’s hard to spell “Rickety-Tickity-Tin”!

[NavyCanDo]

I prefer to listen to Whisky In The Jar while we dine on my very own rich and savory Guinness Beef Stew which is washed down with a bottle or two of ice cold Guinness Stout, or Bud for the English at our table.

[Frank Sheed]

That song is as sad as “Botany Bay”...

[Frank Sheed]

Or the Fields of Athenrye...

http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/w/wolfetonesthe22521/fieldsofathenrye577067.html

[TonyRo76]

Indeed! St. Patrick, the Romano-Briton patron of Ireland ;)

[TonyRo76]

LOL!! Great story. Ah, them good ol’ days...

[VOA]

“It’s depressing. It’s not usually sung in Ireland for St. Patrick’s Day.
Its lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot on Irish soil.

Those are only some of the reasons a Manhattan pub is giving for
banning the song “Danny Boy” for the entire month of March.”

I’ll hazard an amateur guess:
IT REMINDS NEW YORKERS OF 9-11...and that’s the last thing Democratic-
Socialists in NYC want to happen during the upcoming elections.

“Danny Boy” was the song played on the CBS-aired documentary
“9-11” in the closing minutes in which the photos of the fallen were
shown four-at-a-time.
Including Free Republic’s own “BCM” (Battalion Commander Moran).
If you ever watch it on DVD (assuming it’s unedited), make sure
you’re ready for a good cry.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312318/

[La Enchiladita]

Danny Boy~~Declan Galbraith (YouTube)

Galway Bay/Medley~~Dolores Keane

Mary and the Soldier~~Paul Brady

Amhrán na bhFiann~~Irish National Anthem

Raggle Taggle Gypsy~~Planxty

Jolly Beggar Man~~Planxty

Down by the Sally Gardens~~Makem & Clancy

It was down by the Sally Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She crossed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I was young and foolish, and with her did not agree.

In a field down by the river, my love and I did stand
And on my leaning shoulder, she laid her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy , as the grass grows on the weirs
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Down by the Sally Gardens, my love and I did meet.
She crossed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree,
But I was young and foolish, and with her did not agree.

Green Fields of France~~Fureys and Davey Arthur

Irish Traditional Dance Music(Check out the banjo:)

As always with YouTube, you have many more related linked videos on the right scroll down bar: Enjoy.

--Kathleen

[Barb4Bush]

Thanks for the links.