"But the sea is wide, and I cannot swim over ..."

For the great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad
For all their wars are merry
And all their songs are sad.

-- G.K. Chesterton

Except for blacks in North America and the Caribbean, no one has done the language that we call English greater honour than have the close cousins that the dreaded Sassenachs colonised and subjugated most cruelly, first and longest. Through the twentieth century, in literature and folk music both, the Irish taught so many how to speak and how to sing with wit and soul.

Liam Clancy, Tommy Makem, and some Clancy brothers singing one of the greatest of those sad songs, "Carrickfergus," followed by a little bit of blarney. Happy Saint Paddy's Day tae ye, and that's a Scot sayin' all this.

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