The Pipes, the Pipes are calling
Excerpt from my new book, "Color Me Green: Ways the Irish Influenced America."
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Irish music has always brought delight in America. The Scots-Irish in the Appalachian Mountains brought with them Scottish and Irish ballads, dances and folk songs in the early colonial days. When Broadway bloomed in the late 1800s, the great George M. Cohan filled the air with delightful, spritely tunes of Irish names and Irish stage show themes that pumped Irish-American patriotism in the bosoms of all alike. As time moved on into the twentieth-century, popular Irish voices like Dennis Day, Dennis Morgan, Bing Crosby and Kenny Baker offered Irish love songs and patriotic chanteys.
At the end of the 1900s, other Irish groups became popular like The Irish Tenors and … Riverdance. Wow! The invigorating beat of 40 plus feet clicking in Irish step-tap dancing to vibrant music in theaters and concert halls brought out delighted crowds. The thrilling music and dance was introduced at the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest hosted by Ireland. However, it drew such approval that they had to create a full program and take it on tour in Ireland and America and across the globe. The Irish Tenors became popular with a repertoire of lively old ballads and pub songs that curled around American’s heart strings. John McDermott, Canadian balladeer, professional singers such as Anthony Kearns and Ronan Tynan were invited to join and featured on Public Broadcasting Station (PBS) in the United States, The Irish Tenors: Live in Dublin. Others have followed until this day such as Celtic Woman, an all-female Irish vocalists, and Celtic Thunder, a selection of Irish male singers with theatrical lights and displays! In true spirit, the Irish have gained many inroads into modern culture but none as successful as through their lilting music ensembles! --------------- Antagonism between Southern Ireland and Northern British-controlled Ireland is not always in practice. On the Tuesday after Easter, 1941, during England’s war with Germany, enemy planes severely bombed Belfast leaving that northern Irish city crushed and blazing. Immediately on hearing of the German attack on the Anglo-Irish town, the fire Department of Dublin rushed fire trucks 78 miles up to Belfast to help.
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To read more stories like this one about the Irish influence to America, order my new book, "Color Me Green: Ways the Irish Influenced America" by Helen Walsh Folsom.
Over the next several weeks, I will be publishing, with the aid of my daughter, Bettse Folsom, a series of answer & questions & snippets about Ireland that many people have asked me during events where I have attended. If you have a question, please contact me by email and I will be happy to address it.
Thank you for reading my blog!
