Paddy is irrelevant ... yet still very relevant

THE heading seems like a contradiction, but irrespective of what may exist in the Irish psyche the conventional Irish â€ËœPaddy' or â€ËœNavvy' in the UK is almost irrelevant among our young emigrants there today. One could therefore be forgiven for suggesting that the lyrics of the current popular Irish song Paddy are almost irrelevant too. Perhaps this song is just a sad, sentimental look back at another era â€â€œ or is it? With a tiny amount of tweaking the lyrics could have a deeper and more relevant, even more modern meaning that could resonate with the thousands of young Irish now working in the mines and on construction sites far away in Australia.[private] When Claremorris emigrant PJ Kelly emigrated to England, where he was killed in a trench in 1965, he probably never imagined that his story would one day be the subject of a song written and recorded by his nephew Gerry Carney and countless others including young Country star from Galway Mike Denver. The lure (or the curse?) of emigration for the Irish is summed up very well in the following few lines from Ultan Cowley's book The Men Who Built Britain â€â€ A History of the Irish Navvy. 'There had always been the stick of unemployment and the carrot of adventure to lure a young man away from the Irish countryside.' No doubt that stick and carrot lured PJ, now immortalised in Paddy, to the UK during the 1960s which is a decade described in the book as 'the age of transport' and infrastructure building in the UK. But many of the Paddies from that decade, similar to PJ, never made it to old age which could have seen him living in a shelter or a squat in London or elsewhere from where he might watch history repeating itself as the world goes by before his fading eyesight. 'From his window he watches as people They come and go on their way Rushing to catch the train homeward As he often did in his day He remembers the dark of the mornings And the days he worked in the rain The good times the bad times the friends he knew He'll never see them again.' Change two words in this verse, the new line could become, â€ËœAnd the days he worked through the pain' and this song could start to be relevant to the young Irish construction workers now flocking to mining and construction projects in Perth and other places in Australia. In Perth many of the young Irish emigrants are paying $10 for every pint of beer that they drink in some of the clubs. It's a world away from buying a bottle of lemonade at The Galtymore Ballroom in London in the 1960s and the elimination of that those two words 'The Galtee' in the fifth line with â€ËœRosies' makes that verse relevant to so many young Irish emigrants who are now revellers in Rosie O'Grady's nightclub in Northbridge, Perth. 'At nights when the streets are deserted Except for the take-away signs He thinks of the men that he worked with On the buildings the roads and the mines The girl that he met in The Galtee He thought he might make her his own Maybe if there was less drinking He wouldn't have wound up alone.' The chorus of this song only requires the replacement of the word 'England' with 'Oz' for it to resonate in a more relevant way with the young Irish who are in the land down under today P is for powerful when put to the test A is for always doing your best D is for doing if it can be done And D is for drinking when work it was done Y is for yearning to see home again Proud to be Irish and hard working men Paddy remember though your day is done You're the rock that England stands on. According to Gerry Carney, in the sleeve notes for his song, he discovered that the 'worst pain' for the emigrants was 'loneliness and the hope that they would see their homeland again. Many never did or will.' Some of the current crop of emigrants in Australia, mostly probably either the least successful or the most successful, may let the years slip away without seeing their homeland too often either. But by changing one word in the next verse, on line three; it was the â€Ëœsun' and not the 'rain' that took Paddy's strength away. A case in point is the many who succumb to skin cancer in Australia which has a plethora of clinics to treat this in most major cities and in a land that appears to have not much of an ozone layer to shield the skin from the dangerous ultra violet rays â€â€œ worse than the 'rain' that Paddy endured while working with a shovel on the buildings in Britain. You can never explain just what happened The years seem to pass like a day Was it the rain or the shovel Took the strength from his limbs away Sometimes he thinks of the boreen That led from his house to the lane And the fields that he worked with his father He'll never see them again. Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and other cities, as well as Perth in particular are the ones that lure the young Irish of today and of course it can be a land of milk and honey for many, as England was for countless emigrants in the past but, similar to the era referred to in Paddy many will fall through the cracks too and end up in a shelter for the homeless. But by changing two words in line two of the next verse it is relevant to Australia where Sun starts to beat on the ground in a land that seems red from not getting enough rain on its soil. As he makes his way back to the shelter Rain starts to fall on the ground A young man just in from Cork City Asks him where work can be found. He said â€ËœSon take a long look at Paddy And remember whatever you do This broken old man that you're seeing Was once a young fellow like you'. Once again the slightly tweaked chorus comes in at the end of the song stating that Paddy is the rock that 'Oz', instead of 'England', stands on. Ireland has seen so many young men of twenty say good-bye in the past few years, and take the plane to Perth or Sydney or elsewhere, that this country is all the poorer for the loss of some of her brightest sons. No doubt many will make a fortune in the land down under but others, like so many Paddies in England in the past will fall through the cracks and for them the streets of Perth will not be paved with gold as they end up seeking solace from the social services and the caring crew in places such as The Irish Club in Subiaco. Thousands go to this great club each year to socialise or to sort out their sports club affiliations, others socialise nearby in JB O'Reilly's, which sells more pints of Guinness than any other pub in Australia. Some of the modern Paddies go to Paddy Maguire's, also in Subiaco where the Folk group Shelilagh Law have changed the words of one line in the song Spancil Hill from 'I awoke in California, many miles from Spancil Hill' to 'I awoke in West Australia' which gets a great reaction from the audience who would probably empathise with and enjoy the suggested Oz version of Paddy equally well there as they would in countless other Irish pubs and clubs across Australia. Many young Paddies who will get to love the lifestyle of sun, fun, mon(ey) sea, sand, and sometime greater opportunities for romance in the land down under will never want to return again to our grey skies and current crippled Irish economy. But some, sadly may end up like Paddy, in a shelter for homeless men in the UK of the past, only this time their bed may be a similar, and perhaps a cockroach infested one, in some grim and grimy southern hemisphere city. Because Australia is a costly country to live in, even with high wages, the Paddies who do not save enough dollars, and fail to take care of their health, will sadly fall through the cracks and end up alone, unknown and unseen in a land of strangers. So perhaps, songwriter-singer Gerry Carney might, if he reads this, rewrite his song about Paddy which already has strong thought-provoking lyrics but, in their present state, these lyrics could be seen as being almost irrelevant to the Paddies of today. However if the tweaked words were to become more relevant, if he or singer Mike Denver, or somebody else, seizes the opportunity and comes up with a revamped version, this song can be another anthem for the Irish that can resonate in the same way as songs such as The Fields of Athenry or more recently The Galway Girl have done with the 21st century Irish, both at home and in countries all over the world. â€Â¢ â€Â¢ â€Â¢ Quote of the week 'The success of the British construction industry owes a great deal to Irish skills in excavation and construction, and their contribution to the development of the industry has been immeasurable.' â€â€ Sir William McAlpine[/private]