There’s a moment when they start a ‘line dance’ motion… it shows that Celtic Thread that binds the USA with Ireland and other Celtic lands… it would not be out of place in Texas, nor I think, perhaps, Argentina… and the Lady On Violin… well, talk about your Celtic celebration of women…. Oh, and “the kid” has turned into quite a bass, I think…
Romans, eat your heart out, you can never be Celt… Not a Texan, not an Irish, not a Red Headed Babe, not a Celtic Woman on Violin. Just not going to happen…
Doesn’t matter if we are in Appalachia, Australia, New Zealand, France, Czech Republic, North Italy, South France, West Spain, East USA or even Turkey or Russia. We are Celts. We love life and we live it fully. No matter what the context. No matter what the language. No matter what the governance nor if you call us French, Breton, Hispanic, Irish, American, British, Czech, Italian, Argentine, or Austrian. You may dominate, for a while, but we live and play while you fret.
So can there be any stronger affirmation of what it means to be “celebrating life” than this?:
Fat or thin, blond or brunette, top tenor or bass, man or woman, life is a celebration, don’t be too late to the party… Even if you are not a Celt, everyone can be “Irish for a day” ;-)
Éirinn go Brách
Musings from the Chiefio 
“The Celtic Nights: The Emigrants Bridge – a night of music, song and dance” performed tonight in Cape Girardeau, MO.
It is intriguing that the same story is being presented so many places across this country when immigration is a “hot political topic.”
I personally favor immigration worldwide, but not at the expense of the right to self governance.
The loss of credibility in “scientific” pronouncements from our government and the decline of confidence in the United States seem to be the consequence of a well-intentioned decision made after the United Nations was established on 24 Oct 1945 to save the world from possible nuclear annihilation by:
1. Putting the common welfare of mankind ahead of national or ethnic interests, but
2. Failing to acknowledge our Creator as the ultimate authority and UN leaders as trusted servants – not rulers – of the people.
I finally got a pdf file with links that work. So here’s the rest of the story on the rise and fall of the age of
_ a.) Scientific enlightenment and
_ b.) The United States government.
http://tinyurl.com/cg69otr
With deep regrets,
– Oliver K. Manuel
Former NASA Principal
Investigator for Apollo
These young ladies came to town a few months ago. Stunning!
http://gothardsisters.weebly.com/
How odd. Just last night, I Googled Galician folk dance. How like Irish step dancing it is. I had long thought that Irish mercenaries of about the time of the end of Muslim rule (say 1200 to 1500AD) in Spain had brought the style back home; that is, until your “I’m Hispanic” article. What I was seeking originally was a bit of pipes music, and that led me to dancing.
I have long been a fan of both the pipes (Called dulcimers erstwhile, as is the little Appalachian 3-stringed modal instrument; probably from Welsh immigrants.) and of step dancing; watching, not doing. Unfortunately, the performers of both have gotten too polished to do more than bore me to tears. They’re not as bad as the PBS special with opera singers doing folk music. I’m sure every note was perfect as they completely sucked the life from what should have been an emotional connection between the song and the human spirit. Celtic Thunder and Celtic Woman likewise do heavy duty Hoovering. For some reason seeing either makes me think Branson kitsch. :shrug:
That’s why I was seeking out Galician pipes and dancing. I have you to thank for that Chief.
gary
@Gary Turner:
Well, perhaps I can redeem myself for having inflicted upon you a too perfect Celtic Woman or two with a bit of Galician Pipes:
con comentarios en español
Y esas mujeres hispanas celtic
Y Chantada en Buenos Aires
Y esto tambien …
A long time ago R1b haplogroup and R1a were the same tribe. You can feel a bit of that connection in this Bulgrarian pipes and pictures scenario:
Can you feel that long ago, 10,000 years or so now, connection? Those red headed Thracians?
Then these folks from Beton areas:
Et cela dit, dans la description:
Le plus les choses changent, plus elles restent les mêmes …
La joie de vivre est toujours la même … celtique
About 15 minutes in, especially familiar…
The first and last videos I had not seen. Lovely. I hadn’t noticed the mandola in previous videos. Maybe that’s just me, though. It stood out on a couple of passages.
People who don’t like the pipes have something wrong with them; that encompasses most of my family. They won’t even let me pull out my dulcimer at get-togethers because I play pipe tunes with a heavy hand on the drone strings. Philistines!
gary
Ya had to sneak in another few hours of videos, heh?
Listen to the violin at about 52 minutes into the “international Celtic Festival” of that last link in the 8:36 comment, that’s a Canadian playing ( if I followed the commentary correctly ;-) with celts from other areas. That’s just universal. Substantially the same music could be played in Appalachia, Texas, or Australia. Add some pipes and it could be heard in New York City or San Francisco too.
Either the piples move your soul and are a part of you (and have been for a few dozen lives) or they sound like cats being squashed. For me, play the pipes and I’ll march to Hell and bring back roses. For others, well, I suppose someone has to make the tea ;-)
Check out http://www.celticcrossroads.ie/tour.php
or
They don’t mine on stage like many modern performers – what you see is pure live talent.
My son is the fiddler / guitarist / singer … I confess I am more than a little proud ;)
Ah, yes, the pipes! I have always been intrigued by them. Experts have long speculated that the pipes may be what the Scots use in place of music.
:) Just kidding! Actually, I find them lovely. Thanks for the links.
Now, missing, images of Celtic Rosacea :-)
EMSmith says: ” For me, play the pipes and I’ll march to Hell and bring back roses.”
Sounds like something only a Celt could say. ;-)
The Romans said that the Celts did sing like the angels, fought like the spawn of hell.
Too bad the Celts didn’t study military tactics like the Romans did.
But then The Celtic instinct for freedom did not lend it’s self to the worship of Lords and Emperors. pg
EM, thanks for your frequent posts on Celtic music. For those of us who love the music and want to understand the words there is a site on the net with the lyrics to many of my favorite Celtic groups with translations from Gaelic, (and Latin).
In these days there is a famous CELT all over the news: Saint Malachias, the Irish archbishop who predicted the last Pope….
@Adolfo:
Um, I thought Saint Malachias was 5th century?…
http://catholicism.org/saint-malachias-fifth-century-bc.html
@KevinB:
Thanks for the link… sometimes I’ve wondered what all they were saying… ;-)
@sandy mcclintock:
You have reason to be proud…
@Jason Caley:
I thought the story was that “One day a Scotsman had caught a few cats and placed them into a bag. The resulting noise reminded him of music, so he began to squeeze them under his arm. Thus were the pipes born.”… ;-)
@P.G.Sharrow:
It’s a constant conflict between centralized authority (and the coordination, economies of scale, and discipline that it brings) vs individual liberty (and the variety, innovation,and freedom that it brings). Each, also, having as faults the inverse of the other… ( dull uniformity, brittle stifled production, oppressive to liberty; and “Bastard Mix production”, chaotic design pallet, defocused and diffuse efforts.
There is no right answer, only a balance between. We try to have the liberty when we can, then shift to “One guy calling the shots regimented” when needed (via “commander in chief” and “war powers”, but only when in dire circumstances. As we are now in a ‘perpetual state of war’ that seems to be breaking down as a method….)
So we end up a pendulum, singing from one side to the other… The Romano-Celt…
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On 11 March 2013 at 10:49 pm, ‘adolfogiurfa’ noted:
That’s Abp. St. Malachy O’Morgair (__ ____ A.D. 1094–2 November A.D. 1148).
His baptismal name Maelmhaedhoc was deGaelicized & Latinized into Malachias, and Anglicized into the “Malachy” by which he’s known today. He rose in the Church to become Archbishop of his native Armagh (modern south-central Northern Ireland, U.K.), thus by a tradition established by St. Patrick (ca. A.D. 445): primate of all Ireland.
He was canonized on 6 July 1199, by Pope Clement III; his feast is delayed by 1 day from the anniversary of his death, thus celebrated on 3 November, in order to avoid perpetual occurrence (i.e.: conflict in priority for observance) on the Feast of All Faithful Souls.
Nowadays, St. Malachy is most widely known for being “endowed with the gift of prophecy”, as a biographical article in the Catholic Encyclopedia described him (1910). His controversial prophecies about the papacy have received the most attention in the 20th & 21st centuries, as successive papal elections used up the remaining places he prophesied as preceding the final pope. St. Malachy made prophecies on at least 1 other topic, which in retrospect were more straightforward and compelling: English persecution of Ireland and Catholicism.
Specific note: Thus far, I’ve found 3 articles in the Catholic Encyclopedia that’re relevant to this saint:
“St. Malachy” (1910): a biographical sketch (i.e.: “[…]/cathen/09565a.htm”, if URLs are scrubbed away);
“Prophecy” (1911), containing the personally focused section “Prophecies of St. Malachy” (i.e.: “[…]/cathen/12473a.htm”, if URLs are scrubbed away).
“Armagh”: the Emerald Isle’s primatial and metropolitan see, which also prominently mentions St. Malachy (i.e.: “[…]/cathen/01729a.htm”, if URLs are scrubbed away).
General note: Is there some way to make HTML ‘ul’ … ‘/ul’ bulleted constructs work here?