Tom Doyle :: TALK

Every time I visit another country, I’m always proud to be known for being Irish. If someone dares ask “are you from England?” I get highly offended!!!

However, on holidays this year, there were occassions where I felt ashamed to be Irish. The main case in point was the typical Irish holiday goer, in a bar, having a sing a long with other nationalities including english.

They proceed to sing “The Fields of Athenry”…..

In the chorus it goes….. “Low lie the fields of Athenry, Where once they watched the small free birds fly”. At this point there is an ad-lib chant from the Irish, “Hey baby let the freebirds fly!”. Nothing wrong with that, you think….

But they go on to the next line “Our love was on the wing” and the chant gets slightly more republican with the chant … “Sinn Fein!”. All well and good if you are not up with Irish politics….

It’s the final part that makes me cringe everytime I hear it on holidays…. and it’s usually from young people that obviously don’t know the full history and probably don’t even know the Irish national anthem…. Anyway, the song continues with…”we had dreams and songs to sing” and these ignorant fools chant ….. “IRA”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m as republican as the next and I love my country, but why do they insist on doing this? Do they care about anyone else aroung them? How they may have been affected by the troubles???? Rant over….