Ballyshannon Town in Donegal by dingbat2005

I felt pretty sorry that I forgot to add a traditional instrumental Irish jig to today’s radioshow, because it’s St. Patrick’s Day today. I don’t quite remember days like these but I have always felt some connection with Ireland perhaps because of the green fields or the beer/fight/curse culture, so I decided to unload some traditional stuff today for St. Paddy’s Day which according to wikipedia can be celebrated best in parades wearing green and drinking beer!!. St. Paddy’s Day is not celebrated in Istanbul apart from the various “Irish Pubs” around town probably, but I’ve got another reason to post some Irish Folk, and that is the fact that I’ve always been somehow ridiculed for my love of traditional ultra melodic Irish music a la The Chieftains, because, it’s not “hip” or sophisticated enough but today is the day!!

The Chieftains‘ Kilfenora & Donegal sets are actually medleys of instrumental dance songs from the respective countys in Ireland. Totally incredible playing on these two. Then some traditional Irish songs from The Dubliners, another wellknown Irish band, you should actually read the lyrics (Biddy / Grog) to get more fun out of the songs. Then there’s this great tongue twister song “Bog down in the valley“, where on every verse a new word is added to the song and it gets faster. Out of a compilation called The Best Irish Drinking Songs (complete with the bar atmosphere). The closer is an enthusiastic acoustic bar version of Boys on the Docks by Irish punk band Dropkick Murphys. There’s so many more traditional Irish songs that I could have featured here, like “Whiskey in the Jar”, but I left them to another St. Patrick’s Day! Enjoy.

The Instant Irish Accent Breath Spray courtesy of error101.

The Chieftains – The Kilfenora Set
The Chieftains – The Donegal Set
The Dubliners – Biddy Mulligan
The Dubliners – All for me Grog
Best Irish Drinking songs – Bog down in the valley
The Irish Rovers – The Irish Rover
Dropkick Murphys – Boys on the Docks (Murphys’ Pub Version)