Donna Trussell

My new post on Politics Daily / Woman Up:

On Friday word came down that Irish folk singer Liam Clancy, 74 years old, had died. Within minutes Facebook was awash in the news. Radio DJs announced they were planning tributes. Others, including me, posted Clancy Brothers videos.

I found a clip of Liam Clancy singing “The Patriot Game,” the ballad written by Dominic Behan, brother of renowned Irish playwright Brendan Behan. I had not heard the song in years, but even so, I discovered I knew it by heart.

I am neither Catholic nor descended from Irish ancestors, but you could not have guessed that from my family’s record collection. While my parents also had bagpipe music and such evocative titles as “Folk Music from Many Lands,” we had every record ever released by The Clancy Brothers.

“The Patriot Game” was included in their landmark 1964 album “The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem in Person at Carnegie Hall.” That one album gave me more of a political and geographic education than my Dallas teachers ever could.

I didn’t know much about Ireland, or New York for that matter. What was Carnegie Hall? I only knew it was important by the way the audience thundered their approval at one particular anecdote the Clancy Brothers – probably Liam, since he was reputed to be the storyteller of the group – told that November evening in 1961…

Read the rest on AOL. Liam Clancy Brought Ireland – and Politics – to My Front Door.