It's St. Patrick's Day, but we are celebrating for the second year in a row without the parades or getherings at the pub because of the pandemic. Even so, GBH's A Celtic Sojourn host Brian O'Donovan is bringing the celebration to peoples' living rooms, and is holding out hope that we are all closer to the end of the pandemic than we may think. GBH Morning Edition host Joe Mathieu spoke with O'Donovan about his reflections on the pandemic one year later, and how he's celebrating St. Patrick's Day this year. The transcript below has been edited for clarity.
Joe Mathieu: Happy St. Patrick's Day, Brian.
Brian O'Donovan: And one back to you, Joe. It hardly seems like a year ago, does it?
Mathieu: It's pretty strange to think because we've all been remembering these moments from a year ago. One of mine was our conversation on this holiday, one of the first big traditions in Boston that had been canceled by COVID. The news at that point was just getting worse every day and people were scared, Brian. I like to think the news is getting better this year.
O'Donovan: It is. It definitely is. I remember those times as well, Joe, like everybody else. We'll remember it, of course, for the rest of our lives. It's almost an imprint on our lives, a marker. And last year when I came to you, we had lost Broadway and Major League Baseball, everything just had shut down. We had lost five of our six planned St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn concerts. And it was looking bleak at that point, but not as bleak as it turned out to be, was it? We were sitting there last year thinking, "oh, my goodness, this is going to be terrible. I bet it's going to be at least six weeks, maybe two months." And here we are one year later, and it is still here with us, especially for the industry we were talking about then, which was essentially the gathering industry, as you referred to — the parades and the lighthearted getting together. People went to pubs on St. Patrick's Day all over the world that never darken the door of a pub otherwise. It was just an idea that you could touch a lighthearted nature in a lighthearted way. Getting together, whether I was having a beer or maybe singing a song and doing something that's kind of fun, that wasn't possible last year and it's not possible again this year.
WATCH: What has A Celtic Sojourn been like this year?
O'Donovan: Absolutely. We actually have a more sophisticated system that basically connects the ticket that you buy with a platform that streams flawlessly to big screen TVs, etc. It is different, but in a strange way, it's satisfying. For example, tonight I go and do a drone flyover of my home area of West Cork and bring people on tour. I bring people to County Donegal and Newfoundland and Connemara and here in Beverly, Massachusetts, where we recorded some of our house bands. So there are some advantages and we'll take the upside.
Mathieu: Well, we always try to here, but at the same time and where I was going with that is for a lot of local pubs — a lot of pubs anywhere — and for musicians, these are still hard times.
O'Donovan: Very, very hard times. But again, as you pointed out in your introduction, there are pinpricks of light out there, and I myself am very optimistic. There will be bumps along the way, but we are reemerging and we have a lot of rebuilding to do. One of the things that I think I'm going to take from the pandemic, Joe, is that no single moment will be less than the most precious it can possibly be cherished with from here on forward. We will not take anything for granted.
Mathieu: One tradition is the sing-along, Brian, and I understand you've managed to figure out a way to get people to join in safely this year.
O'Donovan: We did. We spent a lot of time at this. It's our tradition to end the first half of the St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn with a good old sing-along. And, Joe, you're far too young for this, but your parents would remember the Clancy Brothers were a force to be reckoned with back in the 1960s and 1970s in popularizing Irish music. They loved to sing along, and one of the songs that we have chosen for them as our tradition as "The Leaving of Liverpool." Well, we went back to the audience and said, "we can't forgo this tradition. We have to get you involved." And no fewer than 62 people went to the trouble of submitting their contributions to that chorus and we managed to squeeze them all into one screen. It's really fun and something worth seeing — "The leaving of Liverpool" included tonight in our virtual St. Patrick's Day Celtic Sojourn.
Mathieu: Very, very clever. How can people join in today if they want to find you?
O'Donovan: Just go to WGBH.org/celtic. We also have playlists, Joe, that we've put together for your St. Patrick's Day. Two different playlists, and people can just send me an email if they want and I'll send them connections to those. Just send me an email at celtic@wgbh.org. We'll send you some music for tonight that you can listen to and access the tickets for tonight's virtual [show] as well.
Mathieu: A full-service operation here. Just have to bring your own Guinness.
O'Donovan: We're lucky at GBH to be able to bring this type of comfort, Joe, during this isolating time.
Mathieu: Boy, that's for sure. I'd love to wrap up with you the same way we did last year. I remember you read a beautiful poem when you joined us this time last year, Brian. It was so perfectly timed to match our uncertainty at the moment. And we asked you to bring something for us to think about this year. You want to take it away?
O'Donovan: Yes, and thanks for this opportunity. This is a poem written by John O'Donnell, who is a writer but also a barrister. So writing isn't his full-time trade, but he published this in The Irish Times. They made it their poem of the week at the beginning of the pandemic when we didn't know how long it was going to last. But in light of this optimism that's out there — notwithstanding the caution and the gloom that can descend on us with each day's headlines — this has an optimistic feel to it, and it's called "When" by John O'Donnell.
LISTEN: Brian O'Donovan's reading of "When" by John O'Donnell.
