In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I’ve been preparing to guide the Irish Hooley tour for Discover Sarasota Tours and perform my one-man how Seamus O’Day and the Irish Way that I’ve developed from it. The script is filled with Irish jokes, and I’ve peppered in a few songs to lighten the mood and make the experience a bit more nuanced.
Of course, when you’re playing Irish songs, you’ve got to consider “Danny Boy”. This is the poem I wrote to introduce it…
All of us have a Danny Boy,
someone we love in our life,
someone who must follow their own path
yet their leaving cuts like a knife.
We hate to see them go
but we know that they must leave us,
and their parting brings us sorrow
and leaves us feeling grievous.
But we love them just the same,
and we wish them all the best,
and we do our best not to let them see
the pain that’s in our chest.
For those we love, we let them go
to make their life an art,
and though they may be gone, they’re a part of us
for they live within our heart.
And here’s my version of the song…
