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Songs, Stories, and Shenanigans.

Songs, Stories, and Shenanigans.

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Hosted by Ohio Irish American News Publisher & Editor John O’Brien, Jr. Raised on Songs, Stories and Shenanigans is brought to you by the Ohio Irish American News and WHK The Answer. Listen on whkradio.com and OhioIANews.com, as well and is available for download, whenever you wish.

 Politica e governo
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  • Episode 6: In My Fathers House

    Episode 6: In My Fathers House
    Jun 19 2020
    Songs, Stories & Shenanigans, Podcast6:  In My Father’s House First and foremost, Happy Father’s Day to all the dad’s and acting as Dad’s out there.  It is not the title that gets the happy, it is the action’s that you exhibit – the things you do when no one is watching, that makes me send the sentiments. I don’t have any kids myself; it hurts, especially at Christmas and family gatherings.  I squeeze what joy I can out of my 25 nieces and nephews, when they let me. I thank you for everything you do, noticed and not, to make this big wide world, a better place. Father’s Day took a long time to become an official holiday in the United States. The first Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910 in Spokane, Washington. In 1924, United States President Calvin Coolidge recommended the day as a national holiday. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made a proclamation for a day to celebrate fathers and declared that an official Father’s Day be held every year on the third Sunday in June.  In 1972, President Richard Nixon made the proclamation a law.   While the holiday originated in the United States, other countries, including Ireland, have adopted the celebration.  I asked my dad if he would take me to the zoo? He answered, 'If the zoo wants you, let them come and get you.' So Happy Father’s Day to those who live out all that being a father to someone means. Then, personally, I  offer Congratulations to John & Eileen O’Brien, my parents, celebrating their 60thWedding Anniversary tomorrow. How they raised 4 kids, sent them all to Catholic grade school, HS and college, I will never know. We were and are so blessed for their love, self-sacrifice and guidance, instilling love for each other, values, volunteerism, pride in heritage and pride in America and being American, as well as awareness of just how blessed we are. Imagine leaving your home, your country, often having never seen a building taller than a few stories, then going to Canada, America or where ever you landed, only for want of a job, any job, and some food.  Just wanting a chance to make your own way.  My dad was not the oldest son; he knew he would not get the farm.Many, many of my friends have lived the song, My Grandfather’s Immigrant Eyes, with their own fathers or grandfathers.  To a lesser degree, I did with my own dad, who emigrated in 1956.  The isle of tears in the song refers to is Ellis Island.  It was written by Guy Clark For me, my favorite singer of this song is Alec DeGabriele, of The New Barleycorn. Here is an excerpt: My Grandfather’s Immigrant Eyes            Oh, Ellis Island was swarming Like a scene from a costume ball, Decked out in the colors of Europe, And on fire with the hope of it all. There my father's own father stood huddled With the tired and hungry and scared, Turn of the century pilgrims, Bound by the dream that they shared. They were standing in lines just like cattle, Poked and sorted and shoved. Some were one desk away from sweet freedom. Some were torn from someone they loved, Through this sprawling tower of Babel Came a young man confused and alone, Determined and bound for America, And carryin' everything that he owned. Sometimes, when I look in my grandfather's immigrant eyes, I see that day reflected and I can't hold my feelings inside. I see starting with nothing and working hard all of his life, Don't take it for granted, your grandfather's immigrant eyes. I never knew my grandfather’s, on either side. My dad’s dad died when he was 2. My Mom’s dad died before I was born. These lessons from my parents have lasted for all of us kids, and their 25 grandkids, my nieces and nephews, with a life of living for others. We arise each day knowing that each day, we exchange 1 day of our life, for SOMETHING; make it be worthwhile O Lord. At the end of that day, when we look back, did we make our world better, that day? To me, it is amazing to think, we started in America with just my folks. They met in Montreal after my dad emigrated there from Ireland in 1956. They married in 1960, and had 4 kids, 2 in Montreal, and two in America. We grew up not having any relations in the U.S., when our friends were meeting cousins at seemingly every gathering or pub. Now, our 6 pak has become nearly 3 cases full, in what seems like just a few years, though it is actually six decades, and 3 generations. The grandkids are learning so much from my folks too – we were all raised in houses were volunteerism is a natural, given, right thing to do.  I hear my dad’s voice, in their shouts.  I see my mom’s ready laughter, and always the singing, the helping, when I gather round my sister’s dinner tables, when I am so lucky as to visit them. I love the song, In My Father’s House. I first heard it sung on Joanie Madden’s Folk & Irish Cruise, in a mad late session in some corner of the ship.  I don’t know the young woman’s name who sang it, but I still recall her ...
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    18 min
  • Songs, Stories & Shenanigans, Episode 5: Anti-Racist

    Songs, Stories & Shenanigans, Episode 5: Anti-Racist
    Jun 5 2020
    You may have seen the term Anti-Racist pop up on social media this past week, or before. Being anti-racist is viewing all racial groups as equal and supporting policies that lead to equality and justice. It not only means to acknowledge that racism exists, but to fight it whenever it arises. Don’t be tone deaf either. I cannot speak for my brother, for I have never walked as a minority in America. But my forebears did. They experienced racism as Irish immigrants in America, the No Irish Need Apply, and all that hardship that mentality symbolizes. Under British overlords, they were stolen or sentenced to slavery, often in Barbados, or even the U.S. “The curse of Cromwell: revisiting the Irish slavery debate” By John Donoghue, searches through the comparison between Irish and black slaves. Donoghue is an associate professor of history at Loyola University, Chicago. Published in 18th-19th Century Social Perspectives, Early Modern History Social Perspectives, Features, Issue 4 (July/August 2017), Volume 25 A few excerpts from this work, both relevant, and insightful: “Cromwell himself oversaw the first wave of colonial transportation to the Caribbean. Writing to parliament after leading the slaughter at Drogheda (Drohg heed ah) in September 1649, the general reported that the ‘officers were knocked on the head, and every tenth man of the soldiers killed, and the rest shipped for the Barbadoes’. Slipping easily into imperial voice, Cromwell argued that massacre and transportation were benevolent forms of terrorism, as they would frighten the Irish into submission and thus ‘prevent the effusion of blood for the future’. In this light, the history of Irish slavery should lead to solidarity with—rather than scorn for—the deep history driving the Black Lives Matter movement. Interracial solidarity may be the only means by which we can lift the curse of Cromwell that still haunts the Irish in America.  “Importantly, Irish servants and others from England and Scotland referred to themselves as ‘slaves’. African slaves also regarded Irish field hands as slaves. An anonymous writer on Barbados, most likely Major John Scott, wrote in 1667 that the Irish were ‘derided by the negroes, and branded with the epithet of “white slaves”’. Africans referred to the Irish as slaves, as the Irish did themselves, to reflect the brutal exploitation they endured as unfree plantation workers who, having been kidnapped or transported, were violently forced to work against their will. Irish sailors voyaging to the West Indies on commercial ventures or with Prince Rupert’s Royalist fleet in 1652 would have seen Irish people subjected to plantation bondage. In 1655, Irish sailors had themselves been transported after being captured serving with Royalist forces.” The Irish race – faced 800 years of attempts to euthanize us. An Gorta Mor, The Great Hunger, whose epicenter was Black 47, is only the most famous. Still they, and we, stand. The Jewish race - faced the Holocaust, and 6 million of them were murdered. Still they, and we, stand. The American Indian race – Driven from their centuries long owned land, treaties violated and starvation. Still they, and we, stand. The Black and Brown race – faced Slavery. Still they, and we, stand. Unfortunately, I am sure there are other such defining cultural attempts at systemic euthanasia. Why did so many Irish become cops, lawyers and then judges, with each succeeding generation following, even to today? This doesn’t lessen the Black cause, it validates it. Despite attempts by others, an equal opportunity gained through hard work, perseverance, wisdom and planning was available to us, often with a hand down for the ones coming after.  Blacks did not, and some still do not, have that.  To revisit Donaghue above, “… approximately twelve million Africans who endured the Middle Passage to the Americas from the early sixteenth century through to the late nineteenth century, who, if they lived (approximately two million of them perished), faced perpetual slavery for themselves and their children, something whites never or almost never experienced.”  The difference for the Irish is that it did not pass on to their children. You cannot equate Irish bondage with perpetual, racial slavery, as experienced by Black slaves. Similarities, certainly. Understanding and empathy, certainly. But surely you can see the systemic racism evident past and present, not just in America, but systemic here for sure. Is silence consent?  Are you, like me, afraid to speak up at times, for fear of saying the wrong thing to our brothers and sisters, and be accused of being a racist, which would crush my human loving soul, while really just wanting to help? In both interest and profession, I study our Irish and American history, and in overlap, I know just a little of what Black history is.   But, just a little. I listen, I strive to understand, to do more than just ...
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    14 min
  • Episode 4: We Will Never Forget, at a Time We Can Never Forget

    Episode 4: We Will Never Forget, at a Time We Can Never Forget
    May 22 2020
    Songs, Stories & Shenanigans: Today’s Podcast: We Will Never Forget, in a Time We Will Never Forget Songs, Stories & Shenanigans: Today’s Podcast: We Will Never Forget, in a Time We Will Never Forget Ireland lays claims to lots of inventions, including color photography, whiskey distilling, the ejector seat, guided missiles, hypodermic syringe, the modern tractor, the portable defibrillator, rubber-soled shoes, and of course - Guinness.  A tiny part of the big list, but interesting none the less. But to me, being Irish has always involved a great love for and influence by, music. Can you guess who said this:"I started with rock n' roll and...then you start to take it apart like a child with a toy and you see there's blues and there's country...Then you go back from country into American music...and you end up in Scotland and Ireland eventually."                                                            - Mr. Elvis Costello The Irish have always been associated with music. Ireland is the only country in the world to have a musical instrument, the haro, as its national symbol. That’s right, The Harp is the official national symbol of Ireland.  It was played by Brian Boru, one of my forebears, and the last true and now legendary High King, who ruled all Ireland in the 8th & 9th centuries. The harp has been a symbol of Ireland ever since. In 1542, Ireland adopted it as their official symbol. In 1922, the Republic of Ireland adopted a left-facing harp, based on the Trinity College Harp located in the library of Trinity College, in Dublin as its official symbol. It appears on state documents and seals, along with the cover of every Irish passport. The medieval tradition of printing harps on Irish coins also continues into the present, with the left-facing Trinity College Harp featuringon Irish printed Euro. The harp is a tribute symbol, of our history and our bards, our past, and our present.  We have a gift for music, the land of saints and scholars, Bards and lawmen. As you may know, last week was Police Memorial Week. With Covid19, all public ceremony events were cancelled, tho many still observed, and many others were able to watch the smaller ceremonies online.  This is the first time in my 14 years with the Sheriff’s Office that I did not attend, and shoot, the ceremonies.  It has always been such a moving, at times heart-wrenching salute to those we lost, with the message to their loved ones that We Will Never Forget.  They do not walk alone, even tho they have lost a peace officer, Brother or Sister, parent, sibling, child or a loved one in the line of duty. - John F. Kennedy said: Tolerance implies no lack of commitment to one’s own beliefs.  Rather, it condemns the oppression or persecution of others.           To law enforcement and their families and friends from across the United States and Canada and to those from right here in Cuyahoga County that join us each year for the Annual Commemoration ceremony, I send these thoughts. I am honored to recognize and reflect with law enforcement officers and their families on the dedication, the sacrifices and the honor of all officers. I wish to say thank you, and I wish to encourage each of you, to continue to strive, whether an officer or an officer’s loved ones, to not only live up to the code you follow, but to be strengthened by it.  We don’t gather alone; we gather together. We don’t fight for justice alone; we fight for it, together; and most of all, we don’t stand alone, each and every person, stands together. In pain and in joy, in sorrow, celebration or solace, we stand together. Officers wear the badges that represent honor, dignity, truth and justice; families wear those character traits too.  For those who have lost, and for those who step up to secure safety and sooth souls on the streets each day, we stand with you, every day. Sometimes those gifts last a career; sometimes the ultimate sacrifice shows the last full measure of devotion, which can never truly be prepared for.  We usually don’t know why they had to die, but we know them, and what they stand for.   From each other, together, we softly gather those gifts. We remember how they served with honor, they and their families. We remember the joys they brought, and the joys those officers brought them. We remember their smile, and how or what they strived for and against, in their days and nights. We remember most of all that they loved us, and we love them. That will never fade, nor falter. So, let us reflect and remember, looking back and looking forward, guided by what we stand for, together, illuminated so fully and frequently by honor, dignity, truth and justice; illuminated with such love from each of us, and for them and for each other. We stand together, fortified, passionately proud of who they were and who we are. We stand, together. The Greater Cleveland Peace Officers ...
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    10 min
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