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The Pogues Can Be a bit sharp at times

The Pogues, singing the Broad Majestic Shannon, with lyrics here.

 

They have other songs that the Trio would like too.

I could imagine Drin singing “The Gentleman Soldier,” with all the gruff bits, mocking the man at fault, and making it rather horrible, and really not funny at all.

https://youtu.be/21dRPu_v1xU

 

 

And of course there’s their cover of the veteran’s song, Waltzing Matilda.

“When I remember that terrible day

the bloodstains the sand and the water…”

 

 

1 thought on “The Pogues Can Be a bit sharp at times”

  1. The last song’s title,” The Sickbed of Cuchulainn” refers to the myth of how Cu Chulainn was laid low with a wasting sickness as a result of his trying to kill two Fae women.
    He was sick for a year, and regained his health by agreeing to help defend the women he’d attacked, but then he fell in love with one of them and you know what– These Irish legends are so convoluted and hard to tell!
    I’m just going to copy and paste from wikipedia;
    ——-
    “The Ulster hero Cú Chulainn is with other men in Muirtheimne, hunting birds by the water. A number of the men kill two birds for their wives, so the women may wear feathers on each shoulder of their gowns. When all the women but Emer have birds, Cú Chulainn becomes determined to kill the largest, most beautiful birds for her. The only birds still in the sky are indeed the largest and most exotic-looking, but the two seabirds are linked by a golden chain and sing a magical sleeping song. Emer recognizes that this means they are from the Otherworld and tells Cú Chulainn not to kill them. He attempts to do so anyway, but only manages to strike one of the birds on the feathers of her wing, damaging her wing, but not inflicting a mortal wound. Cú Chulainn falls ill, and lies unconscious and feverish next to a standing stone.[1]

    In his fevered state he sees two women approaching. They are Fand and Lí Ban, whom he assaulted while they were in bird form. They have horsewhips and beat him almost to death. He lies ill in bed for nearly a year, until Lí Ban returns, asking him to come to Mag Mell and help Fand defeat her enemies in a battle there. In exchange for his military aid, Fand will agree to heal him of his illness. Cú Chulainn refuses, but his charioteer, Láeg, agrees to go. At this point, the story is interrupted by Cú Chulainn suddenly giving a long series of advice to his foster-son Lugaid Réoderg, the newly chosen king of Tara. This material is part of the genre of tecosca (‘precepts, instructions’) and, in Dillon’s estimation, ‘can hardly belong to the story in its original form’.[6] However, Cú Chulainn’s uncharacteristic wisdom here can be understood as a beneficial side-effect of his magically inflicted illness.[7]

    On his return, Láeg, with the help of Emer (who berates her husband for choosing his pride over his health) manages to convince Cú Chulainn to accompany him to Fand’s lands.[1]

    In Mag Mell he joins the battle, and helps defeat Fand and Lí Ban’s enemies. Fand agrees to sleep with him, but this is discovered by Emer, who confronts Fand, accompanied by a troop of women armed with knives. After much discussion both women recognize the other’s unselfish love, and request that Cú Chulainn take the other. Fand decides that since she already has a husband, Manannán mac Lir, Emer should stay with Cú Chulainn so she will not be left alone. Cú Chulainn and Fand are both heartbroken, however. Fand asks Manannán to shake his cloak of mist between her and Cú Chulainn, ensuring that they will never meet again. The druids give Cúchulainn and Emer a potion of forgetfulness, and they forget the entire affair.[1]

    The text closes with a statement generally attributed to scribe who altered the manuscript text (sometimes omitted from translations), that ‘that is the disastrous vision shown to Cú Chulainn by the fairies. For the diabolical power was great before the faith, and it was so great that devils used to fight with men in bodily form, and used to show delights and mysteries to them, as though they really existed. So they were believed to be; and ignorant men used to call those visions síde and áes síde’.[8]”

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