What is our/ Irish peoples obsession with The Fields Of Athenry song? It's a nice song to sing yes.

AMKC

But that's about it. Nothing worse when the soccer team or the rare occasion the Rugby team or some other Irish athlete is losing and supporters start to sing this song.

Me I know a few words of it the basic words but could not not sing it to save my life lol.

I think it's a lame song. There is nothing good about it. It was about when everyone was leaving the Country during the Famine yes.

Why we want to remind ourselves of that bad dark time in Irish history and how is that supposed to help a team if its losing?

igCorcaigh

Thanks OP for bringing up this vital question, which is so relevant to us all now.

dxhound2005

Nothing worse? What about Hitler?

AMKC

And on Cue the Irish supporters in Paris are all singing it like the bunch of drones they all are.

dxhound2005

Do you mean On Cue?

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121147980#Comment_121147980

Yeah and Albert fish

Hyperbollix

You must be new to sport, OP? Sport is a silly affair where, lets say in soccer, 22 grown men kick a bag of air around a field and try to put it in the opponents net. It's a ball game, a preoccupation for children mainly, but we've contrived as a society to give it life and death status, the pride of entire nations hanging on the kick of a ball. Vast quantities of hard earned money is spent attempting to watch footballers kick a ball in various places around the world. It's crazy if you think about it.

So what better way is there for supporters at these games to attribute even more weight and consequence on the on field goings on? Sing a song about the famine of course. This fans the flames of nationalistic fervour, which is kind of useful in an international sporting event.

Jim_Hodge

FFS! @AMKC can you not just think things without creating a thread about them?

It's a sporting anthem. It's a chant or refrain for a bit of craic during a match. You obviously know nothing about the game if you're even raising this.

Would you prefer Swing Low, Sweet Chariot?

Paddy Reilly have such a strong rendition it stuck. When my mother was alive and I was driving her to Galway and we passed signs for Athenry she immediately went into song, not that her vocals were strong in old age. Years later, I found myself stroking out loud notes in my car passing same signs! I still feel I would do it automatically now, but under my breath on board a train.

gipi

The song isn't about people leaving the country, it's about a man being shipped to Australia for the crime of stealing food, leaving his wife and child behind to fend for themselves.

You should listen to the lyrics sometime

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148241#Comment_121148241

No not at all and yes it is stupid the amount of money in Soccer. It will crash eventually as nothing last forever and I will raise a glass to it on the day the whole Premier league and every other stupid league with over payed players crashes. That will be a good day to be alive.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148445#Comment_121148445

Do you know it was Rugby Union you were watching when you started the thread?

dxhound2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148440#Comment_121148440

Nothing in the lyrics about them being married.

AMKC

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148475#Comment_121148475

Yes I do.

timmyntc

Its a sh*te song for old people

The fans should sing a real irish song instead, like Maniac 2000

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148503#Comment_121148503

Probably implied.

They have a child together.

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148819#Comment_121148819

Should have sung "my little armalite"

I'm sure the South Africans could relate.

Duckworth_Luas

Started as a folk song written by Pete St. John, who also wrote The Rare Old Times

It became a big hit for Paddy Reilly in the 1970s and became a staple for Irish folk singers

It started being sung at Celtic FC matches in Glasgow and from there started being sung at Rep of Ireland soccer matches

Later it became associated with Buccanners RFC, but also crossed over from the international soccer supporters to international rugby

Eventually, Munster fans, who didn't really exist until 2000, started to sing it

Now it's sung at all Irish sports events.

It's $hite, but at least it's better than ole, ole, ole

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121147871#Comment_121147871

It's After Hours, the home of relevant threads.

(A mod will probably lock the thread now, with a snarky comment about this having run its course!)

Back on topic, it's better than Sweet Caroline and Wonderwall put together!

dxhound2005

Liverpool fans also sing it with different lyrics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onHbc1Prjz4

'It's a nice song to sing yes'. I just love your conclusion 😂

chooseusername

It would be great craic to go to a match with @AMKC I’d say.

Str8outtaWuhan

There is an irony that the rugby fans in Paris will sing a song about the evils of British imperialism but won't sing their national anthem or play under their own flag lest it offend the British players on the team 🤣

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121149593#Comment_121149593

That's a post straight out of the School of Ignorance of the Irish Rugby setup. It's not a Republic of Ireland team. It's an all island team. So, anthems and flags reflect this when playing abroad. But I suspect you know this and just want to drag yet another thread into republican anti British rhetoric.

Leg End Reject

It's a fantastic song to belt out in a pub if there's trad music.

KaneToad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121149874#Comment_121149874

It's a folk song rather than a trad song. A touristy trad session might feature it but a real trad session probably wouldn't.

A good tune nonetheless.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148440#Comment_121148440

Fun fact: Ex-BBC reporter Laura Trevelyan (whose ancestor is the one referred to in the song) campaigns for reparations for slavery. Her family has paid a relatively minor amount in relation to slaves they held in the Caribbean, but explicitly refused to pay anything to Ireland.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148819#Comment_121148819

Yeah yeah, funky yeah

Although a dance track wouldn't exactly work being sung by a crowd in a stadium

SuperBowserWorld

I would have thought the Green Fields of France would be more appropriate for the Rugby World Cup.

Donald Trump

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121149932#Comment_121149932

Scottish man wrote that

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121149943#Comment_121149943

Yes, just checked and he also wrote "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda".

The power of a song!

The fields of Athenry is a great song. And a great singer can elevate it to another level.

And a crowd can sing it and elevate the atmosphere and team to another level.

And it encapsulates an important time in Irish history. A reminder of how the poor were forced to subsist on one crop and how the ruling classes and their lackeys left them to rot and criminalise them in a country that produced an abundance of food.

We are lucky to have this song.

chooseusername

”Flower of Scotland” when the lads are in full voice is hard to beat as an anthem. Especially against The Sassanagh!

Mod

Warned for this.

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121150105#Comment_121150105

AMKC is keeping boards alive

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121148445#Comment_121148445

It's like global banking - to big to fail completely. Whats going to happen is a shift to a new sphere. The big money is now in the Middle East and possibly China. More and more talented players will swap rain soaked England for a villa beside a man made lake in Dubai and 10x their previous salary.

I gave up on top tier soccer years ago. It's a nothing more than a set of corporations and oil sheiks battling for TV rights and the chance to supplant the established football oligarchy of UEFA, FIFA and the FA with their own competitions to suck all profits up to the top.

Str8outtaWuhan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121149708#Comment_121149708

Afaik up until recently they played amhran na bhiann outside Ireland and in Dublin and god save the queen when the played up north. They also played up until recently under the tricolour abroad.how do you think the British players on the team feel when they hear the fields been sung? And surely an all Ireland team should not sing an anthem that references anti British sentiment when playing in Dublin?

Bobson Dugnutt

Lot of angry Shinners over on Twitter losing their shyte because Zombie is being played and sang after Ireland play.

“Up the RA” is only a song and people are getting upset over nothing. Zombie is west Brit muck and typical of rugby supporters. That’s shinnerbot logic.

tabby aspreme

I've never heard any of the Irish players complain about the singing, when they are out on the field they appreciate the volume of the Irish supporters, this is a gobshi*e of a thread

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121150407#Comment_121150407

Do you actually know anything about Irish rugby???

Mickeroo

I'd rather they sang Les Lacs du Connemara

AMKC like in the 1987 World Cup do you think a rousing rendition of the Rose of Tralee would rally the team?

Str8outtaWuhan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121150472#Comment_121150472

Yes and everything I have said is factually correct, do YOU not know that GSTQ was played up north at matches back in the day?

Str8outtaWuhan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121150502#Comment_121150502

Back in the '50's the Irish lads only took the field to join the Brits on the team after GSTQ had played. So 5 players afaik took the field to stand for the anthem while the rest waited inside 🤣

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121150518#Comment_121150518

You said GSTQ was sung at Belfast matches "up until recently". The last time that was the case was in 1953. That's a very strange definition of recent in my book.

You also refer to British players on the team. I'm not aware of any players from NI on the team who consider themselves British. Happy to stand corrected if you can point any out.

What's all this talk of Brits?

No one from Ulster started in the first 15 last night. Ian Henderson was the only sub from Ulster who played.

And let me clarify, if there were 10 Ulster provincial players on the team it wouldn't make a blind bit of difference to the vast majority of us. Once that green jersey is on their backs they are representing Ireland, North and South. In rugby there's a United Irish team, no partition.

dxhound2005

GSTK. It's a nice song yes. But what is the obsession with English people singing it? Do they think the bloodthirsty words will make us afraid? Think again.

O Lord our God arise,

Scatter our enemies,

And make them fall!

Confound their politics,

Frustrate their knavish tricks,

On Thee our hopes we fix,

God save us all!

Str8outtaWuhan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121150567#Comment_121150567

Over the course of 800 years of oppression, 70 yrs ago would be both recent and within a lot of people's memories.

WishUWereHere

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058315120/what-is-our-irish-peoples-obsession-with-the-fields-of-athenry-song-its-a-nice-song-to-sing-yes

Can I jump in here?

I flew back from Cape Town last night ( just home ). When the Boks scored the Bok Fans were all cheering on the plane, which they are entitled to do.

BUT what I witnessed on 62 minutes was something I hope to experience again. I don’t know how many Irish supporters were among the 80,000, but listening to the Fans singing on 62 minutes it felt like there were 60,000. I don’t know who Emirates took the feed from, but the commentators ( certainly not Irish ) went silent and let the ‘Fields of Athenry’ take over. It was ‘hair standing on the back of the neck’ stuff.

As we alighted in Dubai this morning a few of the Bok Fans came up and were very diplomatic in defeat.

To all those Fans in the Stadium last night, BE PROUD. You were as magnificent as the team in Green on the pitch.

as an aside, the week rest couldn’t have come at a better time.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121151062#Comment_121151062

Ah, you're one of those. I'll politely disengage so. Enjoy your Sunday.

Furze99

Danny Boy would be the job.

dxhound2005

The Welsh sing about peeing in a bottle and giving it to the English to drink. Nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0RDadPheNQ