Irish Political Folk Music: Modern Troubles and Rebellions

The Pogues
Political Folk Music

The Pogues

Bibliography:

Bland, Elizabeth L.  “Eight Lads Putting on Airs: The Pogues shake up Irish folk tunes to make blistering rock.”  Time  21 Aug. 1989.

      This article begins with how the band started, the types of songs they play, and their musical styles.  It contains a brief description of the mixture of Irish traditional folk music and punk rock that the Pogues mix to create their songs. [Jessica Peistrup]

Duncan, Amy.  “American Rockers Don’t Mind the Mixture.”  The Christian Science Monitor 19 Nov. 1986: Arts and Leisure, Music 31.

      This article defines and describes the type of music The Pogues play.  It states that their music is folk-punk and describes the traditional Irish instrumentation and rhythms that they use. [Jessica Peistrup]

Russell, Lisa.  “Rock’s Pogues Rise Even Further After Their Fall From Grace.”  People  8 Aug. 1988.

      This articles talks about how the band started and how successful they became.  It goes into depth of the lead singer, Shane MacGowen’s childhood, how he got into music, and what inspires him to follow his Irish roots.  It briefly talks about the political statements they make in their music. [Jessica Peistrup]

Scanlon, Ann.  The Pogues: The Lost Decade.  London: Omnibus Press, 1988.

      This book is a complete biography of The Pogues up until 1988.  It goes into depth how each member of the band started in music and how they got into the band.  It goes into great detail every moment, every tour, and almost every show that they played.  It describes the beginning of the band, how hard it was to start, how they broke through, and follows them through the rough times they had together. [Jessica Peistrup]

Sullivan, Jim.  “The Irish Pop In.”  The Boston Globe  9 Jun 1988.

      This article is about influential bands that have come out of Ireland.  They focus about half of the article on the Pogues, and in this section they talk mainly about their musical style and the political messages in their music.  They also pick out one song and describe it’s relationship the Irish society. [Jessica Peistrup]

Webliography:

The Pogues: In the wake of the Medusa
http://www.pogues.com
This is a website dedicated to the band.  It contains biographies of each of the band members and information on their current projects.  There are also links to other sites and many interviews containing information about The Pogues. [Jessica Peistrup]

RollingStone.com – The Pogues
http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/default.asp?oid=158
This is Rolling Stones’ artist page all about The Pogues.  It contains a complete biography about how the band formed and through their line-up changes.  It also has archive links to news, music reviews, and concert files. [Jessica Peistrup]

Yahoo! Music – The Pogues Biography
http://uk.music.yahoo.com/biographies/46001179.html
This is a biography of The Pogues from Yahoo UK.  It talks about the political messages in their music and their actions.  It also discusses when Shane MacGowan, the lead singer, left the band and what happened in the band after he left. [Jessica Peistrup]

MSN Entertainment – Music: The Pogues
http://entertainment.msn.com/Artist/?artist=124580
This is MSN Entertaiment’s information page on The Pogues.  It contains a biography that has information on their songs, albums, and history.  It also contains links to listen to sample clips and albums. [Jessica Peistrup]

Paddy Rolling Stone: The Official Shane MacGowan Website
http://www.shanemacgowan.com
This is Shane MacGowan’s official website.  It contains information on Shane and his current band, The Popes.  Most importantly, it contains a link called Press Archive, which contains many interviews and stories written about The Pogues. [Jessica Peistrup]

A Rusty Tin Can and an Old Hurley Ball
http://www.escape.com/~todea/home/home.html
This is a website containing a lot of information about Shane MacGowan and The Pogues.  It has a link to an MP3 player so you can listen to Pogues songs.  It also has links to articles on the Pogues and pictures of the band. [Jessica Peistrup]

The Parting Glass
http://www.poguetry.com
This site contains links to lyrics from different Pogues’ albums.  It also contains annotations on the meaning of the song subjects and what the lyrics mean. [Jessica Peistrup]

Jers Pogues Pub
http://www.jerspoguespub.com
This is an elaborate fan’s website dedicated to The Pogues.  It contains an interesting timeline of important Pogue dates.  It also has links to music and pictures of the Pogues. [Jessica Peistrup]

Pogue Mahone: The Essential Pogues
http://www.greenmanreview.com/poguemahone.html
This is a review of all of The Pogues’ albums.  It also contains more detailed biographical information between the album and song information, which is in chronological order. [Jessica Peistrup]

Irish Political Folk Music
http://www.district94.dupage.k12.il.us/english/collin/irish.htm
This is a website about Irish political folk music.  It contains links to a few Irish political folk songs, one being The Pogues.  There are links that talk about the modern history in Ireland concerning recent troubles and rebellions, and the history of Irish folk music. [Jessica Peistrup]

IrishinAmerica.net

http://www.usirish.uklinux.net/html/article.php?sid=67
      This is a website of the latest Irish news for people in U.S.   This link guides directly to an article that claims to be about a Pogues reunion tour, but mainly talks about how The Pogues’ music was wrongly stereotyped and was really intelligent music about the culture of the time. [Jessica Peistrup]

Pogues Divis

http://www.popex.com/artists/POGU/divis.html
This is an artist page on a website with information about when and where artists are playing or have played recently.  There are also complete pages for the artists.  On The Pogues’ artist page, there is a lot of information with current information about what The Pogues are doing now and their semi-reunion.  It also has links to lyrics and pictures of the band. [Jessica Peistrup]

BBC – Radio 2

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/folk/artist_database/pages/poguesthe.shtml
This is an artist page on The Pogues from the BBC folk and acoustic artist database.  It talks about how the band started and how they revived folk music during the time of stadium rock. [Jessica Peistrup]

The Pogues

http://www.kjq.com/music/artists/pogues.asp
This take on The Pogues actually comes from a radio station in Utah’s website.  It begins by discussing the political take in their songs and then goes into the usual biography about the band. [Jessica Peistrup]

Shane MacGowan

http://www.shanemacgowan.de
This is a website dedicated to Shane MacGowan and The Pogues.  It contains a complete discography of everything Shane MacGowan has ever recorded and the complete Pogues’ story from the point of view of a record collector. [Jessica Peistrup]

The Pogues Biography

http://www.bcpl.net/~lpettijo/3rdpage.html
Yes, I know, another biography, but each has something new to offer.  Instead of a complete step by step or a vague history of the band from beginning to end, this is a step by step to how the band formed from 1981 to the first shows in 1982. [Jessica Peistrup]

The Pogues: Press Ganged

http://www.pressganged.i12.com
This site contains links to the history of the band, a picture gallery, the discography, lyrics, and what they call 9^th Pogue.  This link contains information on the people who contributed to the band.  The biography contains information on why the band’s songs were considered controversial. [Jessica Peistrup]

Irish Soul Stew: The Pogues

http://www.furious.com/perfect/pogues.html
This is one man’s essay on what he thinks The Pogues’ music is.  He talks about the music and the elements that make it what it is.  This is actually an interesting take on their music even though he tends to stray once and a while. [Jessica Peistrup]

Decade

http://hometown.aol.com/skovar1/myhomepage/decade/decade.html
This is a website that contains the entire text of The Pogues: The Lost Decade by Ann Scanlon.  The book is a complete biography of The Pogues up until 1988.  Nothing is left out – literally.  The book is out of print and hard to find, so here is your chance to read it. [Jessica Peistrup]

The Pogues: Hell’s Ditch

http://students.washington.edu/joemcg/pogueshd.html
This is basically one guys review of the last Pogues’ album with Shane MacGowan as lead singer, Hell’s Ditch.  However, he really goes into a lot about the music and what the songs are all about.  He also compares the songs on this album to previous albums. [Jessica Peistrup]

Political Folk Music

Bibliography:
 

Doyle, Geraldine. Boolavougue 1798-1998. Ireland: Tobin Printers, 1998.

      This book is a compilation of articles relating to the United Irishmen’s rebellion of 1798 and the commemoration of that event down through the years. [Tony Taylor]

Juslin, Patrik and Sloboda, John.  Music And Emotion. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. [

      This book goes into great depth concerning the relationship between music and emotions. A multitude of perspectives are taken from many different disciplines. A look at cultural and social viewpoints through music is also examined. [Tony Taylor]

O’hAllmhurain, Gearoid. A Pocket History of Irish Traditional Music. Ireland: The O’Brien Press Ltd., 1998.

      This book traces the history and development from hypnotic harp music of early Ireland to the Lord of the Dance and Riverdance phenomena of the 1990’s. It also focuses the great Famine Diaspora of the 19^th century and the impact it had on the rest of the world. [Tony Taylor]

O’Neill, Francis. Irish Folk Music, A Fascinating Hobby. Rpt. United Kingdom: EP Publishing Ltd., 1977.

      This book explains influences and experiences of Irish folk music to include the history of airs and dance tunes. Also covered are illustrations of how time, taste and development have varied Irish folk music. [Tony Taylor]

Zimmermann, Georges. Songs of Irish Rebellion, Irish Political Street Ballads and Rebel Songs, 1780-1900. Ireland: Four Court Press2002.

      This book examines the evolution and variety of Irish party songs to include their sources and functions. Also examined are the interactions between music and language, the verbal components. [Tony Taylor]

O’Sullivan, Donal Joseph.  Songs of the Irish: an anthology of Irish folk music and poetry with English verse translations.  Dublin: Mercier Press, 1981. [Josh Holloran]

      This is a compiled and edited anthology of Irish folk music.  This should be a very helpful tool in allowing one to gain a sense for the recurring political themes running throughout historical Irish folk music.  Each of the 15 categories of songs is provided with prefatory notes. [Josh Holloran]

Moylan, Terry.  The age of revolution: 1776-1815 in the Irish song tradition.  Dublin: Lilliput Press, 2000.

      This book references revolutionary ballads and songs that provide insight into the history and struggles of Ireland.  I believe it could be very useful in revealing how Irish music has captured a nation’s struggle, rebellion and freedom.  This is a quality source, containing bibliographical references, an index, and songs in English and Irish. [Josh Holloran]

Woods, Peter.  The heartbeat of Irish music.  Niwot, Colo. : Roberts Rinehart, 1997.

      I found this resource under a subject search in the Auraria Library Catalog.  The subject was “Folk dance music – Ireland – History and criticism”.  I’m hoping this book will lend valuable information on the historical recurrent themes in Irish folk songs.  It may be a bit opinionated in its criticism of the music but this could be useful in gaining critical insight into the subject matter and its effect on critics. [Josh Holloran]

Croker, Thomas Crofton.  The historical songs of Ireland [microform]: illustrative of the revolutionary struggle between James II and William III.  London: Printed for the Percy Society by C. Richards, 1841.

      This microfiche zones in on a particular struggle in Irish history between James II and William III.  This could be useful in assessing the effects of one historical struggle and its effect on Irish song lyric. [Josh Holloran]

Zimmermann, Georges Denis.  Songs of Irish rebellion: Irish political street ballads and rebel songs, 1780-1900.  Dublin: Four Courts, 2002.

      As one of the Four Courts history classics, this title shows promise of providing a greater glimpse into the politically centered message found in the Irish street ballads.  This could be very useful in getting a better sense for Irish history between the years of 1780-1900 and noting its effects on Irish music. [Josh Holloran]

Webliography:

A History of Ireland In Song

http://www.linuxlots.com/~dunne/ireland/

This site goes into great depth concerning the origins of Irish rebellion songs. The site is structured in a user-friendly fashion, especially through the use of the table of contents. In addition, the site is linked to other sites offering additional Irish music resources. [Tony Taylor]

Irish Folk Songs

http://www.cs.hut.fi/~zaphod/irish/

This site is doesn’t contain any frills, but has an excellent source of Irish folk lyrics.  The collection consists of 325 songs.  The song list is sorted by titles, however there is an option that allows you to search by words from the song. [Tony Taylor]

Irish Music Page

http://members.aol.com/skyvoyagr/irishmusic.htm

This site details the history and music of Ireland. It also includes access to a number of songs available in MIDI format. [Tony Taylor]

Irish Folk Songs

http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/irish.html

This site contains line airs, ballads, ditties, folksongs, jigs, and reels of Ireland. The site is easy to navigate and all items are sorted by first line of the lyric and title. [Tony Taylor]

Irish Folk Music

http://www.grainger.de/music/irish.html

This site is a general source for Irish music, but contains many links to other sites on the subject of Irish folk music. [Tony Taylor]

The Irish Lyrics and Chords Pages

http://www.jens-nicolaus.de/

This site has a plethora of Irish folk song lyrics suited for guitar chords. The site is also linked to other Irish music sources. [Tony Taylor]

Ancient Music of Ireland

http://perso.club-internet.fr/pybertra/ceol/homepage.htm

This site primarily focuses on early ancient airs that derive from the harp. In addition, the history of the harp is explained in great detail. [Tony Taylor]

Topics in Traditional Irish Music

http://www.standingstones.com/tmirel.html

This site contains a collection of pages describing the history of traditional music in Ireland.  This site is a good source for the beginner who is interested in the essentials. [Tony Taylor]

Tips for learning Irish Traditional Music

http://alan-ng.net/irish/learning/

This site is unique in the sense that it allows the visitor to gain vital tips on what to listen to when learning to play Irish traditional music with an instrument, in particular techniques concerning articulation. [Tony Taylor]

Irish Traditional Music Archive

http://www.itma.ie/

This site serves as an n extensive archive and reference source for traditional song, music, and dance of Ireland. [Tony Taylor]

Irish Definitely

http://www.blackshade.net/

This is quite a well-organized site with an array of music, stories, and political commentary of Irish interest. The music can be downloaded and is of a traditional variety. There are also some old Irish myths and legends here and a discussion of seasonal customs. The author of this site also expounds some opinions about the northern conflict and the Orange Order. [Tony Taylor]

32 County Irish Songbook

http://www.twics.com/~takakuwa/search/search.html

Contained in this site are the details of a songbook that has one song from each of the 32 counties. Also included is a short informative on each county and a map of Ireland. [Tony Taylor]

National 1798 Boolavogue Centre

http://www.io/.ie/~98com/english.htm

This site offers in depth coverage of the battle at Boolavogue. The site is user friendly and provides descriptions of the event listing, leaders, weaponry, and most importantly the ballads and poems inspired from that particular battle. [Tony Taylor]

The Uilleann Pipes

http://www.taramusic.com

This site focuses on the Uilleann bagpipe, the preferred instrument for most kinds of Irish music. The site explains in detail the history of the Uilleann bagpipe as well provide an illustration of the instrument. The site is very informative in terms of understanding the origins of the Uilleann bagpipe. [Tony Taylor]

Folk Music Home Page

http://www.jg.org/folk/folkhome.html

This site contains an explosion of information pertaining to Irish folk music.  It primarily provides an organized set of pointers to other links that include folk music organizations, artists, and countless other Irish topics that relate to music. [Tony Taylor]

The Gaelic Song Archive

http://www.webcom.com/~liam/gae/song/song.html

This site contains the first ever-Irish language song text. The styles for most of the songs in the archives are sean-nos.  Also included within the site is an extensive explanation of how notated ABC format works. [Tony Taylor]

Comhaltas Ceoltoriri Eireann

http://www.comhaltas.com

This site promotes the music, culture and arts of Ireland. The site is structured in a manner that is user friendly making it easy to navigate.  The site also contains MIDI format access to many folk songs.  In addition, there are video streamlines offering a selection of clips from concerts. [Tony Taylor]

Songs of 1798 Ireland

http://www.iol.ie/~fagan/1798/songbook.htm

This site contains a lengthy list of rebellion songs.  The site allows you to select the song of your choice, once selected the lyrics are presented along with a brief description of the songs particular origin. [Tony Taylor]

Cantaria

http://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/

This site offers a library of Bardic folk songs from Ireland.  Cantaria is unique among lyric web sites because almost every song in the archives is accompanied with sound clips of the particular song being performed.  160 songs are in the catalog, which are alphabetically indexed.  This is a great source and easy to navigate. [Tony Taylor]

The Minstrel Boy

http://www.irishclans.net/ogallagher/minstrelboy.htm

This site details the history behind the song Minstrel Boy.  In addition, the site contains information about the writer of the song Thomas Moore.  The site also contains the total listings of music written by Thomas Moore. [Tony Taylor]

WashingtonPost.com: N. Ireland Special Report
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/nireland/overview.htm

Having been written by a Washington Post staff writer, this online article gives a reliable account of Ireland’s troubled history which will be very useful in explaining the nature of so many Irish traditional folk songs.  This article looks at the history of Irish-English relations from first contact to modern day. [Josh Holloran]

The war in Ireland index
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/2419/warindx.html

This Capitol Hill Geocities page offers a good look at the modern troubles and rebellions in Ireland.  It contains various links throughout the article to other reliable articles focusing on a single event in Irish History (i.e. the potato famine, the Civil Rights Movement, etc . . .).  This will give me an even closer look at the inspiration behind the songs. [Josh Holloran]

All Their Songs Were Sad
http://www.district94.dupage.k12.il.us/english/collin/irishsad.htm

This is an interesting article on the nature of Irish Folk lyric and it’s inspiration.  This article will be very useful in addressing some of the key players in Irish Political Folk music and their unique motivations. [Josh Holloran]

Freedom: The Conflict in Ireland
http://www.sinnfein.ie/documents/freedom.html

From the Sinn Féin Press Office, 44 Parnell Square, Dublin.  Sinn Fein is the political arm of the IRA, and in this article, they analyze the troubles and focus on modern problems and Irish heroes.  This is yet another article providing great background on the lyrical focus and inspiration behind Irish Folk songs. [Josh Holloran]

Come Out Ye Black and Tans
http://www.district94.dupage.k12.il.us/english/collin/iblackandtan.htm

This is a page containing lyrics to a famous Irish folk song by the Wolfetones called “Come Out Ye Black and Tans”.  Black and Tans were British criminals employed by the British government as "security forces" in Ireland. Not surprisingly, the criminal Black and Tans, under the watchful eyes of the British government, treated the Irish brutally.  This will be a great example of an Irish Political Folk song. [Josh Holloran]

Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six
http://www.d94.org/english/collin/isorrow.htm

Here is a page with another fine example of an Irish Political Folk song by the Pogues, entitled, “Streets of Sorrow”.  This speaks about British treatment of the Irish, both in Ireland and in England (on Birmingham and Guildford street).  This will be helpful in providing another strong example of a politically centered lyric. [Josh Holloran]

Remembering Bloody Sunday
http://www.larkspirit.com/bloodysunday/

This is a recollection of Bloody Sunday in Irish history with helpful links to Irish newspapers that covered the story.  I thought this might be another helpful history lesson in relating the music of the culture to the historical events. [Josh Holloran]

A Nation Once Again
http://ameba.lpt.fi/~zaphod/lyrics/a_nation_once_again

Here is another song lyric, written by the Wolfetones.  This is one that you gave out in class.  I find it to be a very powerful and embodying voice with regards to the issues many political writers were addressing at the time. [Josh Holloran]

What is Irish Traditional Music?
http://www.itma.ie/home/leaf1a.htm

This is a great site explaining the widely agreed upon characteristics of Irish Traditional music.  Since many of the early political folk songs also have these attributes I thought it would be helpful in describing the music itself. [Josh Holloran]

The Seamas Heany Page
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/3211/heaney.html

Alongside many of the political folk songs of Ireland, there were a number of poets who said their two bits about the relevant issues of the time.  Among these was a man by the name of Seamas Heany.  This page is a look at some of his poetry and the message behind it.  I thought this might be a way to see that music was not the only form of art that expressed desperation during “the troubles”. [Josh Holloran]

Irish
www.district94.dupage.k12.il.us/ english/collin/irish.htm
This site gives a brief overview of Irish musical history, and more importantly and in depth look on why Irish people felt the needed to speak out using music. It also has some links and songs from political folk bands of Ireland. [Russ Brozovich]

Culture and Society: Irish Republican Music
www.altculture.org/ccult/ccult16.html
This gives a break down of the music and what it is composed of. It looks at Republican, Rebel, and Folk of Ireland. [Russ Brozovich]

Gina's Irish Music Page
http://www.g8ina.enta.net/irish.htm
Here you can find all kinds of files of Irish folk music to listen to. It also has some links to other Irish songs. [Russ Brozovich]

Rebel Music
www.redaction.org/ireland/rebel_music.html
This site talks about the current Rebel Folk music in Ireland and gives some examples of current artists doing this kind of music. [Russ Brozovich]

Paul James' Review: Irish Folk Music
music.pauljames.de/eire.html
This site talks about how Irish Folk is created and about many of the modern artists In popular folk. [Russ Brozovich]

Studying Irish traditional music
www.itma.ie/home/leaf4a.htm
This site gives a large selection of references and links to all sorts of Irish Folk resources. It also has some brief info about Irish folk. [Russ Brozovich]

Intro to Irish Folk
people.cornell.edu/pages/shb7/musintro.html
This site has basic info on Irish Folk and has a few links. It basically discusses the origin and why it has risen up. [Russ Brozovich]

About Irish, Celtic, and Bluegrass music
www.mickeymulligan.com/The%20Music/music.htm
Here you can find all about Irish Folk and how it relates and influences Celtic and American Bluegrass. [Russ Brozovich]

Find Ireland folk rock
www.finditireland.com/links/music-irish-rock.html
This site has links to just about every Irish artist you can think of. You can also specify what genre of Irish music you'd like. [Russ Brozovich]

Cecil's Irish Music page
www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/4870/music.html
Here it gives lots of links and info about Irish Folk artists, a description of their music, and some bio info. [Russ Brozovich]

Irish Folk Music
www.grainger.de/music/irish.html
This page has a lot of info on Irish folk, as well as some songs and lyrics. It also sports some links to other Irish music pages. Of course it has to be translated to English. [Russ Brozovich]

Traditional Irish Music
members.aol.com/skyvoyagr/irishmusic.htm
Here you'll find some basic info and origins some of the instruments used. Also there are some links to popular folk songs. [Russ Brozovich]

Folk Music or Ireland
http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/
This site gives all sorts of examples or Irish folk music as well as some info on each. It also includes dates and authors, and some songs from other near by influences. [Russ Brozovich]

Ireland Traditions page
http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/irish.html
 This site features all kinds of resources on anything you'd want to know about Irish folk tradition, including music and dance. It has several links to Irish Folk. [Russ Brozovich]

Getting to hear Irish Traditional music
http://www.itma.ie/home/leaf2a.htm
This actually gives some references of well recorded music as well as some places and festivals you can visit to listen to the music. Links are given as well. [Russ Brozovich]

Irish Folk Music
http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/patrick/music/barry/midi.htm
Here, you will find a large variety of Irish Songs and some links to info pages. It also provides lyrics for most. [Russ Brozovich]

Irish Music Page
polaris.umuc.edu/~jweldon/Music.html
This page provides some brief history on traditional Irish music and also gives some links to present artists such as the Cranberries and Atlan. [Russ Brozovich]

The Pub
members.gtw.net/~seamus/thepub.html
Here you'll find at least a hundred good links to Irish Music and tradition including folk. It also has links to popular artists doing Irish Folk music. [Russ Brozovich]

Music in Ireland today
www.cmc.ie/articles/finding.html
This is an excellent article that talks about the history and the current affairs of Irish music. It also gives links to the artists spotlighted. [Russ Brozovich]

The Rogue Celtic Directory
www.roguecelts.com/els/musicians_a2e.htm
This is a list of every musician doing Irish folk or popular music. This section is only A through E but continues on the second page which also offers links to other Irish music sites. [Russ Brozovich]