When Irish eyes are smiling

It's months until St Patrick's Day but I'm in an Irish frame of mind. For the record, I do not possess even a single drop of Irish blood. I wish I did. Sadly I must get my doses of Irish from Irish music... and Guinness.

I'll save the Guinness until later, first up is choosing my favourite Irish CD. We all know of the Global phenomenon that is ( was!?!) U2. You don't get 5 albums in the Rolling Stone Top 500 Albums Of All Time without being mega-stars. I love them, but if I'm forking out that much for a 4 pack of Guinness I want shamrocks flowing from my speakers. This leaves me no choice but to put on The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and The Lash.

You know for sure with The Pogues that you have bought a CD purely for the music. Nobody ever bought anything to do with Shane McGowan considering him to be eye candy.  Fairytale Of New York is rolled out every year at Christmas and it will still always beat Snoopy's Christmas, but The Pogues were infinitely more than that one song. Blending Celtic rhythms with punk energy their live shows (and I've been lucky enough to see one!) are legendary. The night I saw them Shane was so under the weather he forgot the words to Dirty Old Town. Fortunately he had a couple of thousand of us fans to fill in the blanks.

I met my love by the gas works wall
Dreamed a dream by the old canal
Kissed a girl by the factory wall
Dirty old town
Dirty old town







This CD above always brings a smile to my face. It reminds me of Friday and Saturday nights drinking snakebites and Guinness at Irish bars in Auckland singing, dancing and laughing. Slainte.