(no subject)

[chelidon]

Tommy Makem was a wonderful singer, storyteller, and showman. His songs and those he grew up with, sung in his lovely rolling baritone, were some of those which most influenced me as a teenager and young adult, and which led me to an abiding love of Irish traditional music and myth. "Four Green Fields" still rocks me back on my heels every time I hear it, telling of cruel loss, fierce pride, and stubborn hope for the future. I would like to think that having lived through the Troubles, it lightened his heart in his last days to see what may be their ending, before he passed across the veil not far from where I live. Slán abhaile, Tommy, I will lift a glass of Paddy's and sing a song tonight for you.