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Category: Holiday Lessons

Written by Chris Cotter

On March 17th of each year, every person enjoys honorary Irish heritage for a day. It's St. Patrick's Day, and from north to south and east to west across the globe, in New York City and Buenos Aires and Tokyo, people watch parades, imbibe green beer, and tuck into a plate of corned beef and cabbage. The lead up to the festivities throughout the month sees a spike in all things Irish, too, especially Guinness purchases and Irish songs played on jukeboxes. But at a bar in Manhattan, the owner has nixed one thing particularly Irish for the whole of March, regardless of the holiday - the song "Danny Boy."

"Danny Boy," ranked as one of the twenty-five most depressing tunes of all time, seems far more appropriate for a funeral than a holiday celebration. It symbolizes the exodus in the 1800s, when Irish fled starvation and bleak economic conditions for more optimistic opportunities elsewhere. A number of other Irish songs offer similarly depressing fare, though, such as "Cockles and Mussels." The song relates the story of a young and beautiful fishmonger who dies of fever. Yet "Danny Boy" has gotten the axe.

The bar owner griped that the song simply gets far too much playtime during the month, and he was frankly sick of it. In fact, he promised that participants at the pre-St. Patrick's Day karaoke party would receive a Guinness on the house for singing any traditional Irish song but "Danny Boy."

Although some patrons are pleased with the decision, others consider it tantamount to blasphemy. A fair comparison would be the banning of "Jingle Bells" or "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" during December - something that just isn't done.