Saint Patrick's Day 2022

Best wishes on this Day of St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland!  I have a bit of Irish heritage on my mom’s side, so I like to claim it on this day, not that we need to be Irish to celebrate Patrick bringing Christianity to Ireland.  I have yet to visit Ireland but it’s long been on my bucket list of places I want to see.  I have an appreciation for all things Irish, but what I love most is the music.  Celtic music has its own unique sound and instrumentation that strikes a chord somewhere deep inside me.   Most of us are familiar with a song that has become a bit of an anthem when we think of Ireland so I thought I’d dig out how it came to be so popular not only in Ireland, but worldwide. 

As soon as I mention the title of the song “Danny Boy”, we can all hear the haunting melody in our heads and most of us know at least some of the lyrics.  The song has come to represent the Irish Diaspora and Irish national pride, but the author of the song wasn’t Irish at all, he was British.  Frederic Weatherly was a lawyer, author and songwriter from Great Britain.  He wrote the lyrics for over 1500  ballads,  “Danny Boy” being by far the most popular.  He penned the words in 1910, but it was not put to melody till some years later when his sister sent him the tune to an existing folk song and he thought it perfectly fit his lyrics.  No one knows exactly where the tune originated, but Weatherly’s mournful words made it famous. 

There’s a bit of a mystery as to what the song means.  Who is Danny and why does he have to leave? The song has universally come to represent loss and separation and finality of death.  It’s  been sung by myriads of artists from every genre of music.  On this day, when we’re all “a little bit Irish”, I’ll leave you with the words written so long ago that still resound today and a beautiful photo  by Leighton Smith.  Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

O Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen and down the mountainside
The summer's gone and all the roses falling
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or all the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
O Danny boy, O Danny boy, I love you so

When winter's come and all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me

But I shall hear though soft you tread above me
And all my grave shall warmer, sweeter be
And you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me