chair, and is tuning Eaghdheanaghdh’s guitar like a real pro – head bowed, no nonsense. Since his team won
Quicksilver
, Taighdhg’s prize is that he gets to sing the first song of the night. Some of the teachers, still giddy from their victory, are shouting up suggestions like, ‘The Fields’! Give us ‘The Fields’! and, ‘Kevin Barry’! and, ‘Galway Bay’! but Taighdhg silences them all with a calm wave of his hand. He strokes his beard like a wise man and then whispers something into O’Driscoll’s ear, who nods and smiles and starts strumming the guitar real fast. Everyone claps or stamps in time to the beat and they’re all waiting with bated breath to see what song Taighdhg has in mind. He lifts his head up high, takes a deep breath and begins.
I’ll tell me Ma when I go home … He’s barely got the first word out when the whole place explodes with claps and cheers. This is a popular choice. I know this song, coz Mam has it on a Clancy Brothers record at home, and there’s a line that goes, ‘They pull me hair and stole me comb,’ and we think it’s dead funny to sing, ‘They pull me hair and pinch me bum!’ Most people join in on the chorus in a very shouty way, ‘She is handsome, she is pretty,’ but I just sit there and give my knee the odd tap. Mozzo and Saidhbh are loving it, and nudge each other when they sing, ‘She is a courting, one, two, three!’
Taighdhg gets a big cheer when he finishes and he does three more songs before it becomes party-piece time. This is where, one by one, each person in the room stands up and sings their ownparty-piece. But even though you’re singing on your own everyone usually joins in to help you along, especially if your voice is crap.
Sinead does the first party-piece by singing ‘The Wild Rover’. We learnt this song in school and I know all the lyrics off by heart, but I don’t do anything, don’t join in, don’t clap in the right places or anything. No one notices coz they’re having such a good time, holding their cans of Harp in the air and bellowing, ‘And it’s no, nay, never! DRINK UP YOUR BEER!’ After Sinead, Janet Morrissey, well locked, finds the courage to sing a song I don’t recognise about whiskey. Then one of the old fellas gets everyone going mad with excitement by singing ‘McNamara’s Band’, which we have at home on Perry Como’s
Greatest Hits
.
The party-pieces are going clockwise around the room, and after eleven songs it’s Mozzo’s turn to sing. He makes a big deal about it and says that he’s lost his voice. Then, dramatically, he stands up and pretends to try three different songs in this mock hoarse voice that he’s really putting on, and everyone laughs at him and lets him away with it because he’s been a good sport and made a fool of himself. After Mozzo, Saidhbh gets up and sings ‘Danny Boy’ with her hands folded in the centre of her miniskirt, her silver crucifix shining, and her big brown eyes looking up to the ceiling as if she’s singing to someone upstairs on the floor of her bedroom. Taighdhg whispers that Saidhbh is head of the Mhuire ni Bheatha choir, and when she gets to the high bit in the middle she’s probably the only one in the room who hits the right note. Everyone else together sounds like a mouldy bag of cats getting electrocuted. ’Tis I’ll be heeeeeeeaaaarrrrrrrrrr!
When she finishes Saidhbh gets a massive round of applause, but without cheers because the mood has got a bit sad after such a brilliant performance. Taighdhg Donohue, with red bloodshot eyes and sweat pouring off his forehead, turns to me, deadly serious, and says, Come on, Master Finnegan, out with it. I freezefor a second and, like a gobshite, I think about singing ‘Tainted Love’, but it wouldn’t suit the new mood. The only other song I know that’s as sad as ‘Danny Boy’ is called ‘The Fields of Athenry’, or ‘The Fields’ for short. But ‘The Fields’ is a Rebel Song, and I’m not
Quicksilver
, Taighdhg’s prize is that he gets to sing the first song of the night. Some of the teachers, still giddy from their victory, are shouting up suggestions like, ‘The Fields’! Give us ‘The Fields’! and, ‘Kevin Barry’! and, ‘Galway Bay’! but Taighdhg silences them all with a calm wave of his hand. He strokes his beard like a wise man and then whispers something into O’Driscoll’s ear, who nods and smiles and starts strumming the guitar real fast. Everyone claps or stamps in time to the beat and they’re all waiting with bated breath to see what song Taighdhg has in mind. He lifts his head up high, takes a deep breath and begins.
I’ll tell me Ma when I go home … He’s barely got the first word out when the whole place explodes with claps and cheers. This is a popular choice. I know this song, coz Mam has it on a Clancy Brothers record at home, and there’s a line that goes, ‘They pull me hair and stole me comb,’ and we think it’s dead funny to sing, ‘They pull me hair and pinch me bum!’ Most people join in on the chorus in a very shouty way, ‘She is handsome, she is pretty,’ but I just sit there and give my knee the odd tap. Mozzo and Saidhbh are loving it, and nudge each other when they sing, ‘She is a courting, one, two, three!’
Taighdhg gets a big cheer when he finishes and he does three more songs before it becomes party-piece time. This is where, one by one, each person in the room stands up and sings their ownparty-piece. But even though you’re singing on your own everyone usually joins in to help you along, especially if your voice is crap.
Sinead does the first party-piece by singing ‘The Wild Rover’. We learnt this song in school and I know all the lyrics off by heart, but I don’t do anything, don’t join in, don’t clap in the right places or anything. No one notices coz they’re having such a good time, holding their cans of Harp in the air and bellowing, ‘And it’s no, nay, never! DRINK UP YOUR BEER!’ After Sinead, Janet Morrissey, well locked, finds the courage to sing a song I don’t recognise about whiskey. Then one of the old fellas gets everyone going mad with excitement by singing ‘McNamara’s Band’, which we have at home on Perry Como’s
Greatest Hits
.
The party-pieces are going clockwise around the room, and after eleven songs it’s Mozzo’s turn to sing. He makes a big deal about it and says that he’s lost his voice. Then, dramatically, he stands up and pretends to try three different songs in this mock hoarse voice that he’s really putting on, and everyone laughs at him and lets him away with it because he’s been a good sport and made a fool of himself. After Mozzo, Saidhbh gets up and sings ‘Danny Boy’ with her hands folded in the centre of her miniskirt, her silver crucifix shining, and her big brown eyes looking up to the ceiling as if she’s singing to someone upstairs on the floor of her bedroom. Taighdhg whispers that Saidhbh is head of the Mhuire ni Bheatha choir, and when she gets to the high bit in the middle she’s probably the only one in the room who hits the right note. Everyone else together sounds like a mouldy bag of cats getting electrocuted. ’Tis I’ll be heeeeeeeaaaarrrrrrrrrr!
When she finishes Saidhbh gets a massive round of applause, but without cheers because the mood has got a bit sad after such a brilliant performance. Taighdhg Donohue, with red bloodshot eyes and sweat pouring off his forehead, turns to me, deadly serious, and says, Come on, Master Finnegan, out with it. I freezefor a second and, like a gobshite, I think about singing ‘Tainted Love’, but it wouldn’t suit the new mood. The only other song I know that’s as sad as ‘Danny Boy’ is called ‘The Fields of Athenry’, or ‘The Fields’ for short. But ‘The Fields’ is a Rebel Song, and I’m not