St Patrick's (not) day

[ladyofastolat]

Yes, yes, I know I'm predictable. I've said it all before, but... but...! I went to a dance practice tonight in the room above a pub, and the pub was heaving. Packed with people, full of green and shamrocks and special offers on Guinness. Now, leaving aside the fact that it isn't actually St Patrick's Day today, due to the whole "cancelled it if clashes with Holy Week" thing, here we have an English pub, in England, in which I bet well nigh a hundred percent of the people inside were English, absolutely packed for St Patrick's Day. Fair enough. I have no objection to them doing this. I have no objection to them celebrating St Andrew's Day and St David's Day, and any special day from any other world culture that they want to celebrate. I'm all for multiculturalism and diversity... but I just wish that there could be at least some attempt to celebrate the English special day and reclaim it from the racists and the xenophobes and the aggressive patriots.

I bet this pub won't be doing special offers on local real ales on St George's Day, or putting roses on the wall. It bet they won't be playing English folk music in the background. I bet they won't invite Morris dancers to perform. It's quite incredible how the English have managed to neglect, or even laugh at, their own traditions and folk culture. That leaves a gap that the racists can step in and fill, and make it so that standing up and saying, "hey, my country has some rather nice traditions, actually, and I'd rather like to celebrate them" gets heard as "my country right or wrong, and down with the rest." A couple of years ago, BBC radio's special St George's day programming was a concert with music from Wales, Scotland and Ireland... because to play English music would be jingoistic, I presume, so not allowed.

Anyway... Yes, I've said it all before. I just need to quote Roots again, though:



Now it's been twenty-five years or more
I've roamed this land from shore to shore
From Tyne to Tamar, Severn to Thames
From moor to vale, from peak to fen
Played in cafes and pubs and bars
I've stood in the street with my old guitar
But I'd be richer than all the rest
If I had a pound for each request
For 'Duelling Banjos' 'American Pie'
Its enough to make you cry
'Rule Britannia' or 'Swing Low'
Are they the only songs the English know?

Seed, bud, flower, fruit
They're never gonna grow without their roots
Branch, stem, shoots - they need roots

After the speeches when the cake's been cut
The disco's over and the bar's been shut
At christening, birthday, wedding or wake
What can we sing until the morning breaks?
When the Indian, Asians, Afro, Celts
It's in their blood, below the belt
They're playing and dancing all night long
So what have they got right that we've got wrong?

Seed, bud, flower, fruit
Never gonna grow without their roots
Branch, stem, shoots - we need roots

Haul away boys let them go
Out in the wind and the rain and snow
We've lost more than well ever know
Round the rocky shores of England

And a minister said his vision of hell
Is three folk singers in a pub near Wells
Well I've got a vision of urban sprawl
It's pubs where no one ever sings at all
And everyone stares at a great big screen
Over-paid soccer stars, prancing teens
Australian soap, American rap
Estuary English, baseball caps
And we learn to be ashamed before we walk
Of the way we look and the way we talk
Without our stories or our songs
How will we know where we've come from?
I've lost St George and the Union Jack
It's my flag too and I want it back

Seed, bud, flower, fruit
Never gonna grow without their roots
Branch, stem, shoots - we need roots

Haul away boys let them go
Out in the wind and the rain and snow
We've lost more than we'll ever know
Round the rocky shores of England

by Steve Knightley, from Show of Hands

Comments

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Your poet would appear to have Cornish nationalist sympathies, since he stops at the Tamar.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

In that case one could argue he has Scottish irredentist sentiment, as he also stops at the Tyne, though I wouldn't read the song that way.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I suppose one could read it as meaning that England north of the Tyne and West of the Tamar are exempt from his criticism, and have never lost touch with their "roots". I can't comment about folk culture in Cornwall, but it certainly seems to thrive in the north-east in a way that it doesn't in most of the rest of England. I can't get over the enormous fifteen-deep crowd that turned up to watch the local rapper side near Pellinor's family's home one New Year. Compare the scattered 15 or 20 people who turned up to watch the Morris on Boxing Day near my parents'.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Folk culture in Cornwall often seems to be Cornish as opposed to English or even British / Celtic, for example St Piran's Day (the patron saint) is celebrated in many places. Other aspects sound more like the would fit in anywhere in Britain. (Having said that, I can't see London ever celebrating 'Darkie Day' by blacking their faces and singing minstrel songs...)

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd not seen that poem/song before - thanks! I remember fuming at that remark by the minister, made in the context of banning live music in pubs, IIRC. It wasn't very long ago, so I guess the poem is a recent one?

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

The song was I think released on an album in 2006 and was a single release last year. The video was certainly about on YouTube at one point - try searching for 'roots' and 'show of hands'.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

I should have included the writing credit for the song. I've now edited the post to include it. It's by Steve Knightley, of Show of Hands. I'm not that fond of their stuff normally, but this song made me cry as soon as I heard it, and shout out, "Yes! Yes! This is how I feel!"

[gayalondiel.livejournal.com]

Visiting from sally_maria's recommendation, but may I just say, Word. (Sally has been variously subjected to rants on how no-one respects the armed forces and there are no films of great victories like Trafalgar and what's so funny about morris dancing anyway lately, so I guess misery loves company and she sent me here?)

Anyway, word. *nods*

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Hello! It's one of my periodic rants. I'm a Morris dancer and a folk singer, so my rants are usually from the folk angle. (Morris dancing for the Olympics opening ceremony! Everyone sniggers when we say this, and think we're joking, but I bet any other country would include their own folk dance tradition without a moment's thought.) There's a weird thing in England by which any attempt to say "I like my country's traditions and history and heritage" is somehow interpreted as jingoism. Other countries don't seem to have that problem. It's "Imperialist" for the English to celebrate St George's Day, but perfectly okay for the Scots to celebrate St Andrew's day. It's the curse of being the "oppressor" majority, I suppose.

[sally_maria]

Sorry, I should have warned you I was sending visitors to your door. It's just that I know gaya feels exactly the same on the subject of English folk music and morris dancing, and I thought she might appreciate knowing she's not alone.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That's quite okay! Visitors are good - especially when they agree with me! :-)

[kargicq.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember a few years ago (6 or 7?) when there was considerable media publicity for "let's celebrate St George's day" campaigners. I was mildly irked that nobody mentioned the trivial fact that St George had, that year, been trumped by Holy Week just like St Patrick this year...

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Excuse me for not being in touch with the finer points of someone else's religious calendar, but how does "the whole "cancelled it if clashes with Holy Week" thing" work. I've never heard of it before. Do the saints' days move, or just disappear for a year?

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Well, I have no insider knowledge, but apparently Holy Week takes precedence over everything else, so any saint's day that happens to fall in Holy Week gets vaporised completely that year. Apparently the Irish, loathe to lose St Patrick's Day this year, celebrated it last Saturday instead.

I should own up and admit that I didn't actually know this until Pellinor told me a few days ago, and I then read it on the BBC website. It still entitled me to be nice and smug on Monday, though.