Here Comes Peter Cottontail In Your Easter Bonnet and on the Third Day He Rose From the Dead!

Fred Astaire dances.

Children hunt for candy filled eggs.

Ladies purchase a new go-to-church outfit complete with hat.

Jesus rises from the dead and ascends into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father.

Everybody eats ham.

Happy Easter!

"Danny Boy" IS Irish

"Danny Boy" is a beautiful, haunting anthem of love lost. It's gentle and sweet and poetic in its simplicity. Yes, it 'tis. Does the fact that the lyrics were written by an Englishman who never set foot in Ireland diminish its power to move one?

Not a chance.

Still, this year Shaun Clancy, owner of Foley's New York Pub and Restaurant, gained, not a wee bit, but a whole lot of publicity by saying he was banning "Danny Boy" from his bar on St. Patrick's Day. Why? Shaun said, "It's overplayed, it's been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time, and it's more appropriate for a funeral than for a St. Patrick's Day celebration." And Mr. Clancy didn't like the fact that it was written by an Englishman.

Betty Lou's take on it is this - Celebrating St. Patrick's Day means acknowledging and recognizing and celebrating the entire culture of a people who have known great hardship and communicate their heart and spirit through word and song and poetry. It isn't only Yeats who is known for his lyricism. Lyrics are the language of Ireland. And even though Fred E. Weatherly never visited Ireland before or after he wrote "Danny Boy," it doesn't matter. Ireland visited him and he wrote the song in that country's native tongue.

The version above is sung by The King's Singers. I know nothing of them, only that they sing "Danny Boy" with the intent and honesty with which I believe it was written.


Oh, and Happy St. Patrick's Day to you and yours.
From Betty Lou and hers.