By Jeremy Ritch
My official title with Gen X Watch is culture and music editor. So that is my focus, of course, but in those areas, the often-uncomfortable space of social and politics collide.
With St. Patrick’s Day being upon us, I wanted to write about such a collision as an activist and a person of Irish decent. As the green beer flows and seemingly everyone becomes Irish for a day, there are important issues that come to mind.
These are both Irish issues, but also world struggles that have often been addressed in music. Gen X gave us some great Irish music, from traditional to punk, Alternative and beyond.
“They broke my heart, and they killed me, but I didn’t die. They tried to bury me; they didn’t realize I was a seed.”
― Sinead O’Connor
The Irish spirit of independence and connection a history of struggle has always had a musical outlet. From the traditional folk songs of lore to U2’s anthem “Bloody Sunday” there has always been a revolutionary spirit.
The recently departed Sinead O’Conner was a voice who gripped me as a teenager. Her rebellious rage against the colonizing of her people by the British was always very strong. That spirit gave us a body of work that will long live beyond our time here.
She embodied the feminist energy of righteous rage while standing up for the least of these. Her words and actions made helped shape my own worldview as a midwestern American teenager fighting for my own identity.
“I live as I choose or I will not live at all.” ― Dolores O’Riordan, Linger
When I was in high school in the 90’s I met a kid who was a mutual friend of a classmate. After a couple encounters at parties. I learned he was an Irish immigrant, and one with passion for his people. He also had a passion for justice all over the world. A mindset that was as foreign to me
as his accent.
Over 30 years have passed so his name escapes me, but I remember his kindness and our brief encounters. What I do remember was his challenge to my individualistic thinking. That I should get beyond my own world and see the bigger one around me. He not only taught me of The Troubles in Ireland, but the struggle of the Palestinian people, which I had no knowledge of. His words, like Sinead’s, further stoked the flames of empathy and activism in my young heart.
I went to a lot of shows in the early 90’s. One that stands out was Irish band The Cranberries and Scottish duo The Proclaimers. It was a free show put on by 107.9 the End in Cleveland. The show wasn’t overtly political really but both artists carried the heart of their people and that revolutionary spirit.
There were much deeper aspects to The Proclaimers than the “I would walk 500 miles” anthem made famous by the film Benny & Joon and Dolores O’Riordan of The Cranberries was not as politically angsty as the song Zombie would have us believe.
In fact, that was the heaviest, angriest Cranberries song they ever recorded. The song gave me a perspective of The Troubles that again helped form my views, but overall, The Cranberries were a band that wrote love songs and had such beautiful storytelling, but beneath that was the spirit of their people.
“I always felt guilty because I didn’t lay down my life for Ireland. I felt ashamed that I didn’t have the guts to join the IRA, so The Pogues was my way of overcoming that guilt.” – Shane MacGowan
In this same era, I heard my older brother playing this rowdy Irish sounding music in his room. I’d often sneak into his room to peruse his tapes, most of which were 80’s and 90’s metal, punk, or a random Christian rock band.
I remember seeing his copy of “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” by The Pogues. Shane MacGowan’s storytelling was a revelation. He wrote songs as a young man that sounded as if old men were speaking. His old soul, combined with a punk rock aggression made The Pogues a real force in music.
Though they were just playing traditional Irish music, there was a generational angst in it. Again, the revolutionary spirit that seems to permeate the Irish soul.
I found my way into the deep pool of Irish folk songs and rebel anthems thanks to MacGowan’s influence.
This directly impacting my further education into the fight for independence.
“They won’t break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the Irish people, is in my heart.” – Bobby Sands (Irish Freedom Fighter who died during the hunger strike of 1981)
After high school Irish punk bands seemed to be the thing for a time. American bands like the Dropkick Murphy’s and Flogging Molly took the traditional sounds and themes of Irish music and made them into a new genre. The lyrics were often very broish, specifically with the Dropkick Murphy’s, dealing with brotherhood, unions, and working-class themes. Flogging Molly was also dealing with similar themes but also embraced the drinking culture as well.
Still beneath it all seemed to be that spirit to fight against that which pushes against the humanity of those without power. It did harness the energy and strong sense of community fueled much of the rebellion of Irish freedom fighters.
Spirit of Revolution and Missing the Point
There is a place to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, I’m all for fun and shenanigans. Not everything should be political but to celebrate Ireland without understanding the spirit of revolution is really missing the point.
St. Patrick’s legend was one of driving snakes from Ireland, the snakes were a metaphor. In modern times that same metaphor was used to describe the fight for Irish independence, unity, and freedom. The world today is seeing first hand what that spirit is all over the world.
In America, there is that spirit in the fight for rights for women, LGBTQIA, Black and Brown people. In the indigenous communities who still suffer due to the genocide they suffered at the hands of our own government.
It is very much connected to the ongoing horrors in Palestine. Gaza and Ireland are connected by struggle and by a common goal to be free of another countries rule.
I only ask you think about what it means to represent Ireland on such a day as March 17th .
With all this said I hope you had a safe St. Patrick’s Day. I wish you many more to celebrate as our world gets more and more chaotic. I leave you with the traditional Irish blessing.
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
Link to my obit for Shane MacGowan on The Farsighted Blog
https://farsightedblog.com/2023/12/11/shane-mcgowan-a-man-you-dont-meet-everyday/
My poem I wrote when Sinead passed
Gravity Will Let Us Go (for Sinéad)
You floated on others expectations
Drowned in seas of haunted dreams
Rattlesnake fang fellowship venomous
Gratitude was mixed with poison wrath
I only knew your sacred songs
While wicked hearts removed your crown
You endured the worst of a vipers den
At last earth has turned burning red
Smoked out eyes of faucet tears
Irish songs bled captive English tea
Catholic trauma swept under bastard robes
Pew research tripped ancient alarms
Dripping dust on our cold ash tongues
Like water flowing we seeped in rust
Pens of swords and painted shields
Stars above in polluted skies
Together we’ll dream floated clouds up
Captive on this basic ground, we hope
One day…
Gravity will let us go
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