Happy St. Patrick's Day!

From GG Central to all our friends, especially those in Ireland, Happy St. Patrick's Day. We're feeling floopy with all the sad news. A brisk cup of coffee + a slice of toasted Irish soda bread has fortified us. The Celtic cat turned up her bright pink nose at any caffeine (she really does not need it!) but deigned to eat a few raisins her editor pried loose from the toast. (Yes, yes, we know, it's not authentic Irish soda bread. OK, it's Irish-American soda bread. It is delicious & that's all that counts today.)

So. To links Irish. Via the lovely Madam Mayo, we just visited the Leprechan Fairy Watch in Tipperary. Giulia watched it for awhile but gave up - she has no discipline. Harumph. And for the literary minded, a beautifully interactive website for Yeats lovers. And if you don't love Yeats, oh woe, there's no hope for you.

Imagine Ireland is a year-long Irish cultural festival in the United States. Please check the website for activities in your town. New events are added regularly so a newsletter subscription is recommended. And now....another slice of toast is calling our name.

ciao-craic-meow/GG Holiday Central

(photograph by generous D Sharon Pruitt/Pink Sherbet Photography/Free For All Creative Commons set)

Here's to You & Yours

GG & her editor tip ears & glass, respectively, to you. Have a great holiday. We'll be playing lots of music, including Mary Black CDs. Here's Mary's website. Enjoy! (GG's editor has Irish song videos on her site, here.)

ciao-craic-meow/GG Central

[illustration via Vintage Holiday Crafts--an excellent public domain site]

She Moved Through the Fair

It's not a St. Patrick's Day song but it's one of our favorite traditional Irish songs. This last minute idea on a crazy busy day comes from The Clever Pup's post with a Van Morrison song. (Thanks, Pup!) We have about 10 versions of Fair & love them all (including Van's). But the one we just played is Sinéad O'Connor's from Long Black Veil by The Chieftains (with guests). Here's a link to a performance on YouTube from a festival in 1997. We can't vouch for it as we have dial-up... but just in case you want to hear one version. Give us chills. (Note: Swans are often a symbol of death in Celtic myth...)

Update: well, blast. No time to look for fabulous vintage photograph or drawing of an Irish festival. The one in our mind is just too complex for us to draw. So here is the 1997 video (the cookie is disabled unless you click on the video to play). We could hear some of it & it's lovely.

ciao-craic-meow
GG/mgmt

She Moved Through the Fair (trad.)

My young love said to me "my mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you for your lack of kind"
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh it will not be long, love, till our wedding day"

Then she went away from me and she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she went onward, just one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came, her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
"Oh it will not be long, love, till our wedding day."

It's always a moka morning...

What would we do without our Bialetti? Shudder. Yes, it's St. Patrick's Day but we'll be with you later...after our espresso.

ciao-blarney-meow,
GG/mgmt