It is March. St. Patrick’s Day season is upon us. Americans of all and no ethnic traditions will be subject to a full-scale assault by every imaginable weapon of fake Irish culture: from Shamrock Shakes […]
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(Image: Starry Night Publishing / starrynightpublishing.com)It is March. St. Patrick’s Day season is upon us. Americans of all and no ethnic traditions will be subject to a full-scale assault by every imaginable weapon of fake Irish culture: from Shamrock Shakes to green beer to “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” t-shirts.
One bright spot amidst all this commercial kitsch will be the sights and sounds of authentic traditional Irish music and dance. Nearly extinct by the middle of the twentieth century, these traditional cultural practices, albeit in slightly modified forms, miraculously rose from the dead. From The Chieftains to Riverdance, music once rejected by the Irish themselves as a shameful badge of peasant poverty now draws audiences to packed theaters and concert halls throughout the world.
