There’s one song you can probably hear today in St. Louis. Hear Patrick’s Day festivities across the country and around the world, from the humble village pub to the most balanced hotel party. It is the most famous and ubiquitous Irish song ever sung to infinity (or ad nauseammake your choice): “When Irish Eyes Smiling.”
Almost everyone sang it, even if you always hear Bing Crosby when you think about it. Crosby’s return to the Irish-American musical major was recorded at a slower pace – almost like a prayer – than is usually done; today you are more likely to hear it louder and faster from Barstool Impresarios.
A song like “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” can evoke emotions: it can make you laugh, think, laugh (a certified Irish specialty) or make you cry.
The song was considered an unofficial anthem of the Irish diaspora, so much so that even politicians, Irish or not, appropriated it in an attempt to impress their viewers when st. Patrick’s Day is coming around. When the Kennedy family sang it, they were notoriously off-key. During his 1964 tour of Poland, just months after the assassination of President Kennedy, his brother Robert climbed onto the roof of a car and sang the famous song with the microphone in his hand, but with a twist: he had “Polish Aen “replaced. the amusement of its Warsaw audience. They love him anyway.
President Ronald Reagan, who concluded a summit meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in the 1980s, closed his arms with his colleague and with more gusto than melody, the two presented to the world their version of the Celtic classic. The most famous release of all came when the speaker of the House of Representatives, Thomas P. (Tipp) O’Neill, applied the refrain of the song on the Great Wall of China, so that it may be the first version of the song for they sang. in the Middle Kingdom.
A song like “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” can evoke emotions: it can make you laugh, think, laugh (a certified Irish specialty) or make you cry. (And, depending on the circumstances, it may make you angry – an Irish category all its own.) It was not for nothing that the English Catholic apologist GK Chesterton, in a scathing observation about the character of the Irish, said of them : “All their wars are happy, and all their songs are sad.”
Despite Ireland’s long history of songs, ‘Irish Eyes’ is a relative newcomer to the musical scene: it’s just over 100 years old. Written in 1912 as a show tune by Chauncey Olcott and George Graff Jr., it was set to music by Ernest Ball for Olcott’s production of “The Isle of Dreams”. It was a romanticized song for a romanticized Ireland, which in a few years fell into a war for independence, followed by a tragic civil war. But before that – and just before the start of World War I – the song became very popular on both sides of the Atlantic, especially after John McCormack, the Irish-American tenor, sang it.
Despite Ireland’s long history of songs, ‘Irish Eyes’ is a relative newcomer to the musical scene: it’s just over 100 years old.
Everyone knows the Chorus:
When the Irish eyes laugh,
Sure it’s like a spring morning;
In the lilt of Irish laughter
You hear the angels singing …
But that’s not the whole song: it has two verses that frame the chorus, both as timely and meaningful as when they were first written. The second verse is lesser known, but can bring tears to the eyes of anyone, Irish or not:
For your smile is part of the love in your heart,
And it makes even sun brighter;
Like the sweet song of the line that crosses all day long,
Let your smile be so tender and light;For the spring season of life is the sweetest of all,
There is never any proper care or regret;
And while spring is upon us through all the youth hours,
Let us laugh at every opportunity we get.
There will be a real st. Patrick’s Day celebration after two years of Covid-19 restrictions. Masses are offered, and prayers are said for the “green and misty island.” Parades reopen, meetings between family and friends begin where they left off. Food and drink will be plentiful, and, of course, the music will grace the air.
While the st. Patrick’s Day this year will obviously be a joyous occasion for the Irish people and their descendants around the world, it will be with sadness and concern for another nation and people who are suffering from the disease of what Ireland once had to endure : Ukraine .
This year, perhaps “Irish Eyes” could also be a prayer: Can Ukraine once again have the “spring season of life that is most beloved of all”; Ukraine can ultimately “take no real care or regret.” And “while spring is upon us,” it may be her; and when that day comes again, they have a chance to laugh in their eyes without tears anymore.
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