Liam Clancy (1935–2009)

Irish folkie Liam Clancy tells the story (and it is a story since memoirs need not be factually true) of his life up until becoming famous singing Irish folk tunes (which in some way were never folk tunes again) with his brothers and Tommy Makem. I grew up attending Clancy & Makem shows and hearing their songs played out loud over my dad’s stereo so this life is of a personal interest to mine own. Also, I grew up becoming a bit ashamed of the Clancy’s and their “hokey” version of Irishness. Clancy’s story sets forth no grand plan to debase Irish identity under stereotypes although there is also no atonement for making lots of money off their success. And I’m for one fine with that. Clancy brings a lot of passion, and further a sense of fun to his career. This book ends up presenting neither a glorified version of Irish small-town life, nor the American dream story of rising from poverty, but instead a humorous tale of the cross-Atlantic experience of many émigrés, making it big through hard work, a bit of good luck, and some good connections.

“I suppose all of us think that we invent ourselves and glow at our own creativity. Later we discover what our parents and forebears did and we begin to realize – Oh my God! We are just updated repeats!” (p. 29)

“To me, thinking back on it now, organized religions have always been the political wing of spirituality. How incompatible they seem when you think about it, organized religion being made up of rigid rules and the need, sometimes a desperate one, for conformity, for power, for hierarchical structure, contrasting with spirituality, which of its nature is fluid and open, like female sexuality, to the experiment of life.” (p. 32)… (meer)