According to author Pat Higgins, "In Ireland, music is an act of love." This episode of Folktales follows that thought-- through folkworlds old and new, scattered world-round, in search of musical styles and words of wisdom for, from and about the Irish. From our own Celtic-rooted heartland, through that 'Land of Saints and Scholars' itself, and on into Irish-kissed Spanish, neareastern and African traditions.

Featured musicians include The House Band, Jill Mozena & Joyce Fry, Elle/The Remnant, Guggenheim Grotto, Rodney Cordner, The Chieftans with Los Folkloristas, Baka Beyond, Na Lua and more.'Tis the wind at our backs, a song in our hearts, and the luck of the Irish that lead us to the pot of musical gold at the end of this rainbow.

An exhibit called New Virginians: 1619-2019 & Beyond features oral histories and photographs recorded by Pat Jarrett.  People share their personal stories of how they journeyed from Central and South America, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Republics to make Virginia their new home. David Bearinger  introduces excerpts from the interviews and discusses the complexity of the immigrant and refugee experience for the individuals and families who have lived and are living it.
Later in the show: The contributions that Irish nuns made to help destitute immigrant Catholic children in New York City were instrumental in developing modern American social institutions like foster care and welfare. Before the nuns aided these children, they were being sent to live with Protestant families, often never seeing their parents again. Maureen Fitzgerald speaks about what lessons can be learnt from the Irish immigrant experience. Also: Cindy Hahamovitch compares the history and experience of guest workers in the United States to other countries.

For Americans watching current events in Iraq, the stories of the Troubles are haunting. And when the looking glass is pulled back we see eerie similarities between the two conflicts: warring factions on all sides with a foreign army caught in the middle trying desperately to keep the peace. What is it like to live in constant conflict? What does the brink of civil war sound like? Voice of the Troubles answers those questions for an American audience by entering the lives of those who lived in Ireland during the 70s and 80s, waking up each morning to find bodies on their doorstep and bombs under their kitchen window. The program begins with an intimate conversation with a hunger striker's brother who was with him on his last night alive. We then hear two starkly different interpretations of the riots and protests that followed. The second segment follows the earlier lives of two children growing up during the Troubles, the good times and the bad. The program concludes in a soundscape of wisdom on the effects of conflict, how it erodes even the most fundamental elements of society. It's history passed through the lens of today's headlines.

An exploration of the breathtaking scenery, cultural delights and captivating cities of the Emerald Isle. Guests include Pulitzer Prize winning author Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes), Pete Hamill, Nuala o'Faolian, Larry Kirwan, Mary Pat Kelly, Colum McCann,Jimmy Breslin and others. Listeners are taken on a literary pub tour of Dublin, learn about the must-see spots, and where to find the best music. Production of LINER NOTES is made possible through the generous support of Cunard: classic British ocean liners offering a most civilized adventure.

A SPECIAL ST. PATRICK'S DAY REMEMBRANCE ON "THE SONG IS YOU": Author of the best-selling memoir, Angela’s Ashes among others, Frank McCourt traces his life musically from the Rocky Road to Dublin, featuring the Chieftains and the Rolling Stones, to the sounds of New York, New York with Frank Sinatra.

Dublin in August 1985 and two boys aged 10 and 13 hop on a DART train for a ride that will take them a few thousand miles beyond their stop.

Keith and Noel were friends. They had a knack for bunking off. One day they hopped on a Dart and skipped out to Dun Laoghaire for a laugh. Nothing there but boats and day trippers. So they snuck on a ferry and went to Holyhead. They'd been there before. The last time they'd been spotted and sent packing. This time they made if off the boat and bunked on to the train to London. Back home their dinners were getting cold.

They got talking to a fellow voyager who admired their skills and offered them a meal and a sofa for the night in the family home. Then he dropped them back to the London station. They saw a tube for Heathrow and figured they might fly home. Keith and Noel were used to getting trains and buses and ferries. This wasn't their first adventure. They'd been to Butlins, they'd been all over. Keith used to bunk off school and go on little adventures. But they'd never taken a plane.

They hadn't any luggage to speak off. Heathrow was a pretty big place for a 10 year old, but no one bothered them, no one asked to see their tickets. Keith and Noel just walked on through the checkpoints telling anyone who needed to know that their mum was just behind them. That's all. Straight through Heathrow international airport with nothing but a few coins they'd nicked from the charity fountain. Dead easy.

The lads asked a passenger where his plane was going. He said New York. Keith looked at Noel. Noel looked at Keith. In for a penny. Surely someone would stop them. Someone did. They told them they were sitting in their seats. The lads got up and moved down to the back of the plane, an Air India Boeing 747, just like the one that had blown up off the Irish coast two months before killing everyone on board. Security was tight. Someone was going to twig it.

Then the doors closed, the plane moved away from its gate. A few minutes later Keith and Noel were taking off in to the London sky bound for JF Kennedy International airport in New York. Outbound movie playing that week was the new James Bond - "A View To A Kill".

Brilliant.

(PRX homepage image from Shutterstock.) 

The contributions that Irish nuns made to help destitute immigrant Catholic children in New York City were instrumental in developing modern American social institutions like foster care and welfare. Maureen Fitzgerald says before the nuns aided these children, they were being sent to live with Protestant families outside NYC, often never seeing their parents again. Also: Cindy Hahamovitch compares the history and experience of guest workers in the United States to other countries.

Northern Irish poet Seamus Heaney won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1995. Since then his lines have been quoted by world leaders, his new translation of "Beowulf" has become a best-seller, and he has praised rapper Eminem for encouraging interest in poetry among young people. But in his latest collection, District & Circle, Heaney returns to some of the darkest images of his work in the 1970s...when the violence in Northern Ireland was still his main preoccupation. Perro de Jong talked to the poet at the 2006 Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam. About the perils of discarding history too soon...and the need to go back to the "first life" of memory and place when the world makes you feel "simply lost?

Irish Producer Maeve Conran, takes a nostalgic look back at what the old St. Patrick's day celebrations were like...but Ireland 20 years ago was a whole other world. The new 21st century Ireland is a whole different thing, and so is the celebration of the national holiday. Interviews with a priest and theologian on the religous and historical significance of St. Patrick, aswell as a talk with the man in charge of the St. Patricks Day Festival, no longer just a 1 day deal, but a 5 day, event, expecting 1 million attendees. But the real celebration happens in the local pub, as barman Vivian Walsh, explains...

Most Americans have an idea of what it means to be Irish.  That may be partially due to the fact that Ireland's government has done a great job of branding itself overseas. But on Saint Patrick's Day, a holiday famous in the US for its pub crawls and green beer, what does that brand represent?  Stephanie Hughes reports.

In this Song and Memory story, Kathy Napoli of Brooklyn, New York, remembers how every St. Patrick's Day her father would get neighborhood men to come up to the family's apartment and drunkenly sing Irish songs . Her most memorable song is "Harrigan" an Irish-American tune from the musical Yankee Doodle Dandy.

Irish producer, Maeve Conran, returns to her native Dublin to find that St. Patricks Day is a different kettle of fish from days of yore. Ireland is a whole different place from what it was 20 years ago, secular, modern, multicultural...so does a celebration of the origins of catholicism in Ireland, have a place in the Ireland of today? Carmelite priest Fr. Vincent O'Hara, describes how St. Patrick first came to the country and how the catholic tradition lives on. Bar man Vivian Walsh gives the inside story on what the real celebration is like, more partying than prayer, and just how much guinness can one city drink?