In honor of Father's Day, this segment of A Celtic Sojourn is dedicated to the fathers' theme and relationships with family.
In many of these songs and poems, the relationship referenced is between a father and a son. We include poems by John B. Keane, FR Higgins, Joseph Campbell, Patrick Kavanagh, and Seamus Heaney, and songs from Ewan McColl, Dougie MacLean, Dick Gaughan, and more.
We talk with musician John Doyle about his musical relationship with his dad, who is also a singer, with Robbie O'Connell about his song "The Turning of the Tide" and the cycle of life, and with Matt and Shannon Heaton on the inspiration for a tune specially written for Matt's father.
Often in literature and songwriting in the Celtic tradition, paternal relationships are based on recollections in later life. Sometimes the father has passed on: often, the writer is in middle or old age. The sudden realization the child is now becoming the parent is a common theme.
So, this program perhaps has a wistfulness, nostalgia, and yes, a bit of sadness attached. But the range of emotions is varied and intriguing. Several of the writers, like Cork poet Theo Dorgan, and Scottish singer Dougie MacLean, explore the idea of talking with their fathers, and each compares their own lives and lessons learned to those of their dads. Nobel-laureate Seamus Heaney praises his father's legendary abilities in digging turf admired by his entire community. Heaney almost apologizes for choosing a pen as his preferred tool.
Robbie O'Connell recollects his surprise when he learns that his father was over 60 when he learned to dance. Ewan McColl writes two bitter songs about his father's struggles in mid-20th century industrial England. And Dick Gaughan spits out McColl's socialist admonishments to his son, telling him there are "no boogeymen, ogres, wicked witches, only greedy sons of bitches, who are waiting to exploit your life away."
One of my favorite poems we learned at school: Irish poet Joseph Campbell remembering — prayer-like — going "with his father a ploughing." In the segment, Linda Thompson's song describes the pain of passing battle equipment and propensity to violence from one generation to the next bequeathing destruction itself, from father to son.
So yes, this segment, I suppose, is not the hippity-hop, polka-dotted gift tie, let's-go-out-to-brunch-with-dad Father's Day scene. But after all, I'm Irish, and to paraphrase GK Chesterton, all our wars were merry, and all our songs were sad.
Have a happy and reflective Father's Day!
A Spotify playlist of many of the songs in this segment is below.
The poems used include:
"I Will Go with My Father A Ploughing," Josephe Campbell
"Talking with My Father," Theo Dorgan
"A Call," Seamus Heaney
"Memory of My Father," Patrick Kavanagh
