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Have you ever been sorry you asked something? Don’t be! PLSJ’s Reference Librarian J.L. finds the answers to questions you thought might not even have an answer.
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:08 Welcome to pls J'S podcast for the public library of Steubenville and Jefferson County shares with you our favorite quirky questions finds out what leaders in our community are reading interviews, local authors, and so much more. This podcast is part of the Ask Us series where the reference librarian shares answers to some of our favorite questions from the past and provides information on topics you've pondered but didn't know who to ask. Now you do.
Speaker 2 00:00:47 There's a brace in winter breeze cutting through the button trees. So I button up my coat to keep me warm. But the days run the Mens Monroe again, with beneath my Arm I have a paint and a strong pair of frogs and there's rossin in me pocket for all me and field strings of learned tune.
Speaker 2 00:01:22 So anytime anyone thinks of Ireland, one of the first things they tend to think of is the music. Music and Irish culture are very closely intertwined since, as far as we can tell, before recorded history and definitely through recorded history. But indeed, whether or not it was recorded in any form can be part of the problem. We know that most of the music of any sort that has ever been conceived of has been lost cuz the idea of musical notation is actually fairly recent. So there were songs that were written performed beloved and then forgotten long before anybody had any means of recording it. And Irish music was very much passed down through oral tradition. And oral tradition is great and indeed is a very big part of folk music. One of the things that I remember learning when I was learning to play folk music was the idea that every time you play a song, you should be creating the song anew.
Speaker 2 00:02:29 And it does mean that this time you hear it, it might be very different than if you hear it 10 years from now. Kind of like a game of whisper down the line. But even early accounts from the Romans mentioned, the Irish and Music and a class of Irish society that we've come to known as the Bards. Now they have been called the SCOs and other things, but the Bards were the historians for, they were the ones who passed the music down. They were entertainers. Of course, you would have the itinerant bards who would move from town to town passing news and telling you what's going on in the town nearby. And were an important part of society so much that there were times that the Bards were, if the king was doing something wrong, it was only the Bards that could tell him. And the kings were often forbidden even from reprisal against the Bards for that.
Speaker 2 00:03:27 And indeed there was a class of Bards known as the Brek who were the law keepers. But we do have accounts from the Romans whether they were accurate or not, because the Roman accounts were often sort of propaganda. We know that they existed. Fast forward a couple hundred years to 1581 and you have the image of Ireland, which was Tudor era propaganda. But it mentions the import of the Pipers who would play along with the military PIRs, who functioned in the way that drummers and bugs often did. In other words, using music or piping calls to basically communicate with the army. Important enough that the piper were considered a military target by the English troops trying to invade Ireland. And of course the import of the Barnes of those days. The Harpers was enough that Elizabeth, the first is quoted as saying, hang the Harper's wherever they are found and destroy their instruments. And indeed there are recorded of fires where hundreds of harps were burnt. So again, there was import so much that destroying the musical culture of Ireland was important to conquering Ireland.
Speaker 2 00:04:49 Oh, your face, brutal. No, the old disgrace that black Fitz William stoned your place and drove you to the fan grace at victory, which shall show the fire William have up. And we go for by the Lord has given his word. Follow me up to Carlo. So the Irish, of course being the Irish continued to defy and music continued to exist. And eventually you had a lot of the Irish nobility leave in what was called the flight of the Earls, where they went to other countries. Some of their Harpers went with them and some of them did stay in Ireland, but it started to spread Irish music and culture. But as I said, some did stay in Ireland and in county myth, a shoemaker named Olan had a son named Turo. Turo. Olan was born in 1670 and was blinded at age 18 by smallpox.
Speaker 2 00:06:07 But Turo decided that what he would do was learn the harp and learned the harp he did. And so soon he set out with a horse and a guide and would go to the various noble houses still in Ireland and the houses of rich patrons composing what were called planks. These which were tribute songs to these people, composed over 200 of these, many of which were later written down. And Turo Carolann is considered to be one of the national composer of Ireland. And many call him the last of the Bards. He died in 1738, but not without leaving some wonderful heart music, which has played to this day.
Speaker 2 00:07:17 So Irish music continued to spread and of course by the 18th century Irish people began to spread the diaspora, beginning with the Irish potato famine, which led to a lot of Irish immigration to America, the Irish who brought their music with them to places like Boston and of course Appalachia, where you can find Irish music in the roots of things like country music and bluegrass and to the point where this music is now all over the world. Eventually, Irish groups became popular of groups like the Chieftons, the Irish Rovers recording, and of course that just led to even more popular already Irish music. We were with a cargo of bricks from the Grand City hall in New York. What an elegant craft she was and and no other wild winds. Her Jesus Everlast she 27 mask and we called the Irish roll. Nowadays Irish music still lives on, but it's not just the more traditional stuff that got started around the 18 hundreds and has been played and changed until today. But you have Irish influenced metal, you have Irish influenced punks with bands like Flogging Molly, the Dropkick Murphys, and of course the pokes. Listen, as I slept, I dream hand and we passed the time of day and when question, not his views and the CROs of fl, his philosophy, he had these few clear and simple words to say, I am going, I am going. Any which way The wind may be blowing. I am going, I am going, what dreams, how whiskey are blowing.
Speaker 2 00:09:31 There's a lot more to be said about Irish music and a lot more of it out there. I think I'll leave with a song that is sometimes attributed to O' land, whether he actually composed this or not. It's a good song to close with. In fact, I once sang it at a coworker's retirement party. So it's fitting that I end for all the money that ever I spent, uh, he spent good company for all the home that I have done. It was to number me and know that I've done full lack of to memory now I country. So to me, a partying glass goodnight. Enjoy, be with you all for the comrades that they are. For my going away, for all the sweethearts that I, they ask me one night to stay falls into a lot that I should rise. And you should not. I gently rise and softly. Good night, enjoy. Be with you all.
Speaker 1 00:11:34 Thanks for listening to P ls j's podcast. Have a question you want the answer to? Visit the library's [email protected] or email the reference department, chapa branch seo libraries.org.
