A Love Song

Danny Boy. Those two words together make music. Oh, sweet melodious music. On St. Patrick's Day, wherever you wander, chances are, you will hear this beloved Irish ballad, maybe more than once. Quite possibly, you will be swept up into the mournful yet stirring singing of "Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling..." The melody is voluntary, the words remembered, the sadness suddenly revisited, "from glen to glen, and down the mountainside..."

What is the meaning of this most-recorded song? Contrary to popular opinion, I think Danny Boy has very little to do with the IRA conflict, mother losing a son, or Mother-(blank)England. You see Danny Boy to me, is a love song, shockingly written by a British barrister. Oxymoron right? What does an Englishman know about Irish love? Maybe that is the reason the words are a bit confusing. However, looking beyond that, I see an unrequited love between a living woman and a deceased man warm in the grave or is it the other way around? Whichever way, it works. "And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me and all my dreams will warmer sweeter be and if you'll fail to tell me that you love me I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me." Can you not feel the intense love these two now separated souls once shared with one another expressed in these words? So much so that the deceased hopes that the living will come to the grave and "kneel and say an Ave there for me" , in an Irish winter no less.

I know St. Paddy's Day is a day when the world celebrates in a rather oddly sanguine and reckless way for all reasons Irish. For in truth the day belongs to lovers of all disparate clans. An enduring love that is defined by gains and losses. Joys and sadnesses. Danny Boy is a musical interpretation of that love. To quote 1 Corinthians 13, "In a word, there are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love; but the greatest of them all is love."

So on St. Patrick's Day, when you join in the chorus of singing Danny Boy with your loved ones or others after having wee drams of Irish whisky or whatever your choice, remember those who you truly love or loved. And raise a glass to them...in thanksgiving...in gratitude. For that will make your day and your occasion that much sweeter. Cheers, my friends.