The year ends with our own MALACHY McCOURT, appearing on CBS This Morningon Tues. Dec. 31 between 8 & 9 AM to talk about (& sing about?) the centennial year of “Danny Boy.”
Malachy wrote extensively on the “Danny Boy” in his recent book of the same name.
Oh Danny Boy, the pipes, the pipes, are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying
”Tis you, ’tis you must go and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow
“Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny Boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.
Everyone can hum this haunting Irish ballad that inevitably brings a tear to the eye. For all its popularity, the most requested “Irish” song and its origins still remain an enigma. Is it even Irish? Did the song initially grace the Irish countryside as the winsome ballad of an itinerant piper, or did it first take form as a blind musician’s bow danced across the strings of a fiddle? Travel with Malachy on his journey for the truth as he interviews musicologists, historians, academics, celebrities, and Irish icons. Join the expedition and trace the complex evolution and enduring mystique of “Danny Boy” in an unforgettable tribute that brilliantly weaves history with folklore.
