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Fuck these fucking interesting times.

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This blog will pay for itself.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

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… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

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Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

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Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

We still have time to mess this up!

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I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

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Hot air and ill-informed banter

You are here: Home / Open Threads / With a KMRIA

With a KMRIA

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If we were going by raw percentage, I really should be called Irish Steel. I’m 7/8ths  one kind of celt or another including no small amount, of all things, Cornish. Hell, my paternal grandfather came within a hair’s breadth of taking holy orders with the Jesuits. Is that Irish enough for you?

I was running errands around town yesterday and heard a radio station in Peoria say they would spend St Patrick’s Day playing World’s Greatest Irish Band. So I want to urge you, as you drink your Guinness or green beer and sup your corned beef and cabbage, to spend no time listening to that penny licking gombeen Paul Hewson and his sanctimonious, crypto-Christian rock.

In 2015, he said U2 “paid a fortune in tax”. An earlier decision by the band to run some of their business through the Netherlands was, he said, “just some smart people we have working for us trying to be sensible about the way we’re taxed. And that’s just one of our companies, by the way. There’s loads of companies”.

To ifreann with him. Celebrate instead Turlough O’Carolan, the blind Irish harper often called the Irish Mozart. Here is the equally astonishing Davey Graham’s arrangement of a couple of his tunes.

Slainte!

Reader Interactions

49Comments

  1. 1.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)

    I’m not Irish or even Irish American. What’s a gombeen?

  2. 2.

    GregB

    OT. Turmp’s lawyer John Dowd is public calling for the Mueller investigation to be shut down.

    The Saturday Night Massacre is more of a mass shooting spree.

  3. 3.

    West of the Cascades

    Every year (roughly) around St. Paddy’s Day (roughly) a group of local Portland musicians come together as KMRIA and play Pogues tunes for three hours. Last March was their 10th anniversary show. It was very good.

    From concert notes to their show last year:

    The name KMRIA is an acronym for “Kiss my Royal Irish Ass” excerpted from James Joyce’s “Ulysses” and used in the Pogues song “Transmetropolitan”.

  4. 4.

    Amir Khalid

    I’ve heard tell that corned beef and cabbage is an Irish-American invention quite unknown in Ireland. Also that no self-respecting Irishman wants green dye in his beer. And even that St Patrick didn’t really drive the snakes out of Ireland, because the English ruled the place for centuries.

  6. 6.

    Mnemosyne

    @Amir Khalid:

    The way I’ve always heard it is that the dish in Ireland uses pork, but when the biggest wave of Irish immigrants moved here and lived cheek-by-jowl with Jewish immigrants in urban areas, they adapted the dish to use the meat that was easily available at the nearby kosher markets: corned beef.

    So, yes, it’s as all-American as chop suey and ketchup (both invented by Chinese immigrants in America).

  8. 8.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mnemosyne:
    The word “ketchup”, incidentally, comes from the Malay “kicap” (pre-1972 spelling “kichap”) which is our name for soy sauce. (For that other thing, we use the British English term “tomato sauce”.)

  9. 9.

    mad citizen

    “Turlough O’Carolan, the blind Irish harper” Listening to a composition right now. I was thinking he was some great harmonica player I hadn’t heard of, though, like the Canned Heat guy.

  10. 10.

    RSA

    @Mnemosyne:

    The way I’ve always heard it is that the dish in Ireland uses pork, but when the biggest wave of Irish immigrants moved here and lived cheek-by-jowl with Jewish immigrants in urban areas, they adapted the dish to use the meat that was easily available at the nearby kosher markets: corned beef.

    That’s a nice summary of a story from the Smithsonian magazine that I just came across, after Amir’s comment.

  12. 12.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Amir Khalid: “Tomato sauce” is a common phrase in US English, but it doesn’t refer to ketchup (which is much sweeter and more vinegary).

  13. 13.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Screw all that. Where are my homies who remember the night we live-blogged that movie Pop Gear? Omnes? Zhena Gogolya?I just discovered this little gem: the Pop Gear dancers remixed with Count Five’s “Psychotic Reaction.”

    Return of the gold pants!

  14. 14.

    Litlebritdifrnt

    When I lived in the States I always wondered where the silly “Corned Beef and Cabbage” came from. It is certainly not Irish (as in from Ireland). They were much more likely to eat ham or mutton as people have said. I often had this conversation with the owner of the restaurant next door to our office and asked her why didn’t she serve Irish Stew instead, which is not only much more authentic but tastes ten times better in my humble opinion. She always said that she was doing just what people expected of a restaurant as opposed to being “authentic”. In fact in honour of today I think I will have Irish Stew for my dinner.

  15. 15.

    Arclite

    Should this have the tag “fck the poor”? That’s what happens when rich people avoid paying taxes.

  16. 16.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Neither myself nor my wife has any known Irish heritage that we are aware of, yet we both love that music. (She got into it first, then got me started). We are fortunate to have some very talented musical friends who play O’Carolan’s stuff in their repertoire. One is an American classical guitarist who just bought himself a harp-guitar and taught himself to play it, so he could access this literature. The other is an Irish harpist who lives and works in the West of Ireland when she’s not here in the States.

    If you’re ever out that way and have a chance to hear this lady, by all means do so. She’s awesome.

  18. 18.

    Mnemosyne

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Being Irish was never nearly as bad on America as being Black, no matter what some idiots try to claim, but IMO they claim that to try and elide the genuine history that many Irish indentured servants and immigrants had no problem intermarrying with African-Americans (even if the marriages weren’t always strictly legal because of anti-miscegenation laws). Many African-Americans have Irish last names in part because of that history. Henry Louis Gates Jr. discovered through genetic testing that the largest single portion of his DNA (40 percent) is Irish, and was able to trace that back to a specific post-Civil War ancestor.

  20. 20.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    Hmm, maybe it’s time to line up a viewing of “The Commitments” and “The Snapper”. And, possibly, “The Quiet Man”. For some odd reason I have a fondness for John Wayne movies, probably because he was so ubiquitous in my childhood.

    Out in Connemara where it was filmed, there’s quite the tourist industry in Quiet Man souvenirs and memorial locations.

    My main memory of “The Snapper” is that every other scene seems to be in the pub, that beer comes in only one color (Guinness Stout of course), and that everybody has a beer in their hand, including the very pregnant protagonist.

    ETA: An Irish-themed (via Disney) movie I don’t need to see again: “Darby O’Gill and the Little People”. Think Lucky Charms leprechauns and you’ve got the gist of it. Although it was kind of fun, in a disturbing way, to hear Sean Connery sing and act in a more-or-less Irish accent.

  21. 21.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym:

    The Snapper is a really good movie, but finding out how the guy’s (adult) daughter got pregnant is a little disturbing, on purpose. But half the point of the movie is that it doesn’t matter because the pregnancy and birth helps pull the family back together regardless of the true story.

    I don’t know if it’s streaming anywhere, but the BBC TV series “Father Ted” is hilarious for recovering Catholics.

  22. 22.

    clay

    There’s nothing more Irish than hating on successful Irish people, so I guess this post is pretty appropriate.

  25. 25.

    Ignatius Donnelly

    I don’t have a drop of Irish blood in me, but I love the music. And for my money, the brief-lived Bothy Band is the greatest Irish band ever, bar none.

  26. 26.

    The Dangerman

    @clay:

    There’s nothing more Irish than hating on successful Irish people…

    Bono and the Boys are an interesting case; they’ve gamed their taxes, but they’ve also donated a shitload to charities.

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack

    @zhena gogolia:

    Inorite! I did a spit-take when I found it this morning. I was troubleshooting a problem with my TV sound suddenly not coming out of the Vizio sound base, and somewhere in the process I linked the Vizio box to my cell phone via Bluetooth to make sure it was working. Then I got sidetracked because all the YouTube songs sounded great coming through the Vizio box.

    Anyway, I was going through some old ’60s songs, and the thumbnail picture on one of the “upcoming” songs caught my eye. I was like, wait, that can’t be—but it was. It made my day! The sync job is really well done.

    Glad you caught this!

  33. 33.

    chris

    Happy St. Patrick’s day to all. My great grandfather always celebrated with a bottle of Guiness, all the while complaining that it wasn’t as good as the real thing.

    Also, Happy birthday to William Gibson, in his own words “a newly minted septuagenarian.”

  34. 34.

    Washburn

    Here’s a GoFundMe for McCabe’s retirement: https://www.gofundme.com/8t3wn-andrew-mccabe-retirement

    I don’t know if the person who started this is reputable. I would sort of like to see someone accepted as trustworthy do this and then for it to receive millions of dollars that McCabe, being a decent and honorable person, would then dole out to charities and stay in the news cycle until the election.

  35. 35.

    James E. Powell

    @Mnemosyne:

    The Pogues is one of those bands where I can’t pick one, or even a top ten, without feeling like I need to add more. I do think “The Band Played Waltzing Matilda” is their “Stairway to Heaven” – the song I don’t need to hear again for at least five years.

  40. 40.

    J R in WV

    I like the GoFundMe for Mr McCabe’s retirement.

    My favorite Irish band is Black 47. They’re sort of a revolutionary socialist hard rock band from NYC, blending Celtic, Jamacian Rasta rock, Hiphop, and all the other great sounds in NYC. Wife’s union co-manager of her union was acquainted with the boys.

    Here is Black 47/s “Funky Céilí” for your listening pleasure.

    I also like more traditional Celtic music, harpists and pickers and fiddlers and all that. Mountain Stage has those kinds of folks on pretty regularly, as well as the local Friends Of Old Time Music and Dance, aka FOOTMAD, which kind of specializes in old string band music to be danced to. Neighbors all play that kind of music also.

    In Black 47’s world, the rich are the English lords who stole Ireland from the Irish to no good purpose, leading directly to the famine, which wasn’t caused by a potato blight but by the continued English shipment of foodstuffs of all kinds from Ireland to England despite a crop failure in and around 1847, to keep up the cash flow for the thieving kleptocrats who didn’t care if all the Irish starved, in fact that was a bonus for them. And Black 47 wants to punish the rich thieving English bastards by tearing down their wealthy world around their knees.

    Schrodinger’s_Cat, you might find them comrades in arms, kinda, don’t know how you feel about hard rock with bagpipes, but the philosophy of the band with regards to the English is right in line with yours.

    I’m beginning to get over this cold, which I acquired in Los Angeles, a city I begin to not care for so much. I woke up at 5 am, and briefly surfed a little bit while hydrating and doing some more cough syrup, etc. I actually felt so good I thought I had broken through on the cold and would be OK today. NOT so much! When I woke up at 1 this afternoon, back to being clogged up, though I do feel better than yesterday.

    Pray to Ceiling Cat and FSM for my continued improvement, brothers and sister of Balloon Juice, and beloved Jackals.

  41. 41.

    oatler.

    I really liked Horslips in the 70s. The Tain, The Book of Invasions, whatever. They were using Gaelic titles in their music before Irish chick-names became fashionable.

  42. 42.

    Yutsano

    @Mnemosyne: No no no. If you’re going to go Irish, Go Irish all the way.

    Actually filmed in Ireland with Irish actors. Yes it’s a soap opera. Don’t judge me.

    (It’s also on Netflix)

  43. 43.

    Gemina13

    I’m of Scots descent, not Irish, but I love O’Carolan’s work and Irish music in general. (Yes, that includes U2.) O’Carolan is the one who inspired me to accept my mother’s dream that I’d learn to play the harp. Today I have a 38-string harp, and I love this instrument beyond all sense. Anyway, today I’m going to celebrate with some gorgeous harp music and dinner at Snappy Dragon – roast pork and dumplings, with maybe some homemade pulled noodles.

  44. 44.

    Minstrel Michael

    @oatler.: Yes, Horslips! Do you know how they acquired that name? They’d been calling themselves the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (as a five-piece already), then they morphed into the Four Poxmen of the Horslips, and then just shortened it. For those who’ve never heard of it, The Tain is a rock opera version of the traditional Irish epic Tain Bo Cuailnge, the Cattle Raid of Cooley. All the songs use traditional tunes, usually as instrumental counterpoints to the vocal melody. They played Boston (and its huge Irish-American audience) quite frequently back in the day, and their traditional encore number was Jethro Tull’s “Locomotive Breath”– their organist also played flute, as well as whistle and Uillean pipes.

    However, my actual favorite Irish band is probably Planxty.

    Turlough O’Carolan is the reason the harp is one of the most prominent symbols of Ireland, e.g. on their Euro coins.

  45. 45.

    Mnemosyne

    @Bex:

    There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama! ?

    I loved how the Irish embraced him as one of their own, and I think he enjoyed it, too.

  47. 47.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    Thread needs more Thin Lizzy and My Bloody Valentine. Everyone knows “The Boys Are Back in Town”, “Jailbreak”, and “Whiskey in the Jar”, so I won’t bother linking them; I’ll give you “Emerald“, the closing song from Jailbreak, instead.

    As for MBV, presumably everyone knows “Sometimes” from its usage in Lost in Translation, and presumably everyone knows “Soon” as well. “Cigarette in Your Bed” is an excellent lesser-known tune. Sexy with more than a hint of danger behind it – in other words, exactly what I’m looking for.

    I think FYWP limits us to two links, but metal fans who haven’t heard Primordial should go check them out as well. I’m not sure what to recommend as a starting place – really depends what kind of metal you like, probably, but I suspect they have something for almost everyone who likes metal.

  48. 48.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Amir Khalid: Just FTR, “green beer” is made by adding blue food coloring to more-or-less golden beer. Still sux.

    Years ago I followed a half-dozen local Irish bands & knew most of the players & hung out at the closest thing Baltimore had to an Irish pub on Thursday nights for the trad music session. J. Patrick’s died not long after its eponymous owner (the honorable Joseph Patrick Byrne, RIP) & no venue has taken its place & of all the bands listed as playing today in the area, I recognized not a one. Sigh. Sic transit etc.

  49. 49.

    Greenergood

    Planxty, De Danaan and Moving Hearts – can’t do links – but they are the, THE best – old school, I know … new school great, but acknowledge your elders …

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