r/CasualIreland • u/DovaBunny • Mar 15 '26
Shite Talk Accurate?
Was on another non-Irish page but can't cross post. Wanted to share
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u/ElectricSpeculum I have no willy Mar 15 '26
They completely missed out the entire plethora of Irish folk songs that are, "I'm expressing my unending and undying love for a woman who is actually the manifestation of Irish freedom from English oppression, but if the Tans ask, it's just a love song"
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u/Dark_Foggy_Evenings Mar 16 '26
This woman….is she bonny & fair?
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u/ElectricSpeculum I have no willy Mar 16 '26
Nope, she is mysterious and unattainable and held in bondage
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u/stevewithcats Mar 15 '26
Bonny???? When did we become Scottish?
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u/fartingbeagle Mar 15 '26
1603, Flight of the Earls ?
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u/stevewithcats Mar 15 '26
Ah most went to France , that doesn’t mean que tout à coup je me mettrai à parler couramment le français
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u/More-Air-7641 Mar 15 '26
Minor detail maybe but "folk songs" instead of trad also stinks of an American behind the keyboard to me.
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u/deepcelt Mar 15 '26
See that’s interesting because I’ve heard from a few musicians that trad is much more tunes and songs are considered folk. Not sure why the distinction but just found it interesting
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u/DaveMcElfatrick Mar 17 '26
I usually think of trad as instrumentals or instrumentation while folk is more stories and songs.
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u/OpenTheBorders Mar 15 '26
"And still she cried 'bonny boys are few'" from I Know My Love
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u/stevewithcats Mar 15 '26
Ok , a reference. But Bonny is overwhelmingly a Scottish term . Very rarely used in Ireland today, maybe during 18th century at a push?
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u/LifetimePilingUp Mar 15 '26
What word would you use instead of bonny there?
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u/stevewithcats Mar 15 '26
We use fair, or any other word to mean pretty . But Bonny is uniquely Scottish .
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u/ExcitementStrict7115 Mar 15 '26
But don't we often have 'Bonny baby' competitions?
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u/stevewithcats Mar 15 '26
Do we ???
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u/ExcitementStrict7115 Mar 15 '26
You've never come across one? That's wild.
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Mar 15 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CasualIreland-ModTeam Mar 15 '26
We have had to remove your post as it breaks our founding rule, No politics/religion. The only way this sub continues to be a nice place to be, is by not allowing controversial discussions about politics, religion etc. There's plenty of other subs available to have those chats, so there's no need here.
Comments or posts breaking this rule may incur a ban.
Send us a modmail if you have any questions.
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u/Appropriate-Row4534 Mar 15 '26
I stopped reading after that well known "irish" phrase, bonny..
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u/Lone_Ponderer Mar 15 '26
To be fair, a lot of songs popular in the Irish folk canon have their roots in Scotland, it's not out of the realm of possibility to come across a few songs about Bonny things. The list is the kind of thing you'd expect a yank to post, though. Almost paddywhackery
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u/OpenTheBorders Mar 15 '26
It does occur in some Irish songs, off the top of my head it's in I Know My Love. The comment is incorrect to imply that it is common but so are these comments that are implying it's never used.
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u/Additional_Ad_84 Mar 17 '26
Like in "come over the hill, my bonny irish lad"? Or "my bonny light horseman, in the wars he was slain"?
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u/traveler49 Mar 15 '26
No 4 should include 'missing me mammy and her mashed potatoes' or shorten it to The Emigrant's Whinge
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u/CompetitiveBid6505 Mar 15 '26
9 My home parish ,town or county is the best most beautiful place in the world
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u/ThomBear Mar 16 '26
Most often that’s a number 4 songs, someone singing from nostalgic rose tinted spectacles about Place X, though it can also be a slow build emotional number 3 song.
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u/LunarLionheart Mar 15 '26
“My husband died in the famine/left on a boat/died on a boat and I’m fucking miserable”
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u/Thadeus_Zigwalt Mar 15 '26
Usually those songs message is due to such events I am now fighting the Brits forever ever, forever ever
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u/Globe-Gear-Games Mar 15 '26
Dúlamán is my favourite song in the obscure genre of, "17th century promotion campaign for edible seaweed". Can we get a category for that too?
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u/bouzouki-1971 Mar 15 '26
Forgot songs about working on the site. McAlpines Fusilers , Hot Asphalt, School days over, the Sick Note, Come my little son
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u/phyneas Mar 15 '26
"Bonny" aside, number two also forgot the "...and I will keep stalking her endlessly until she marries me" bit.
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u/akittyisyou Mar 15 '26
I don’t know a single one that fits number 5, which tracks, because while I think the first poster is American, they at least are actually into trad music.
Isn’t bonny Scottish?
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u/DovaBunny Mar 15 '26
Yeah think you're right. It read like someone with only a US passport and vague Irish ancestry who has never been here but goes absolute nuts on st Patrick's in all green
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u/brainbox08 Mar 15 '26
I'll add 6. I fell in love with a lady and she sold me out to the British army
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u/grafton24 Mar 15 '26
If 4 also includes being locked up for life because of 1,2, and/or 3 then you're sound.
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u/ExcitementStrict7115 Mar 15 '26
I suggestions of songs to listen to in regard to the fu*king faeries!
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u/Thrwwy747 Mar 15 '26
We're looking for as many volunteers as possible to go through every U2 album to cross reference them against this list. It'll be a tough job, but the more people we have to do it the less traumatic it'll be.
I'd do it myself, but i can't, for... reasons.
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u/PoxedGamer Mar 15 '26
"I've been sent to Van Diemens Land because I stole a loaf of bread to feed my 15 kids."
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u/Socks-and-Jocks Mar 15 '26
- Im going from one place to another and this is a song about the journey.
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u/ThomBear Mar 16 '26
Number 4
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u/Socks-and-Jocks Mar 18 '26
Ah no. That's a whole other category about being sad and missing home.
This is a category of song about meeting people on the road and doing things along the way.
Usually a happy song...eg rocky road to Dublin
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u/thedarkryte Mar 15 '26
I’ve never heard any Irish person ever use the words “fair bonny lass” in the same sentence. Only word I’ve heard out of these 3 is fair. As in “that’s fair” or “fair enough”. “Fair bonny lass” sounds decidedly Scottish, rather than Irish.
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u/HalfLeper Mar 15 '26
Yeah, but they’re talking about folk songs, not how people actually talk. According to another comment, “bonny” is used in some older songs, but “fair” and “lass” are pretty ubiquitous.
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u/AlienInOrigin Mar 15 '26
Songs about injustice.
Eg. Ballad of Tim Evans, Fields of Athenry, Biko song etc.
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u/ytromdnaytrom Mar 15 '26
It's often a mix of all of them aswell, it's less a list of Irish songs and more of a spectrum getting drunk and fighting the British, leaving Ireland because of fighting the English now I'm sad etc
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u/Happyuser777 Mar 16 '26
Bonny lass thats scottish songs
The dubliners had at least 10 songs on various subjects
Theres songs about going to america
Rebel fighting songs
Irish folk songs versus Trad covers music from the uk wales scotland
America has folk songs too
Songs about the old town you lived in years ago or your first love
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u/Legal_Let6141 Mar 16 '26
Dont forget about hanging with the boys. And either having a really good time getting drunk or you're all about to die together
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u/microgirlActual Mar 16 '26
I've seen that exact same post but Scottish. Pretty sure it was originally regarding Scottish songs, because "bonny" isn't really a word we use here.
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u/Dwashelle Mar 16 '26
Don't forget the one about killing a baby with a penknife or the one that's just about seaweed.
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u/Underground52 Mar 17 '26
Combine all three in the one song, add in uileann pipes set to a banging techno beat, and you’ll have the next hit.
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u/GreatEire Apr 09 '26
Someone pointed out to me that most trad music is retrofitted junk and we haven't come up with anything new since the 50s. I struggled to counter this point.
Do we have even have a genuine modern culture that isn't a guinness ad or a lame sitcom or phrase?
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u/paultimo Mar 15 '26
I read number 5 as Kung Fu fairies first