Danny Me Boy, Is That The Chattanooga Choo Choo?

In New York ,Shaun Clancy, who owns Foley's Pub and Restaurant, just off Fifth Avenue opposite the Empire State Building does not want the song "Danny Boy" played or sung during St Patrick's day or for the month of March as its been ranked among the 25 most depressing songs of all time.

A pub near Detroit AJ's Cafe is staging a "Danny Boy" marathon on St. Patrick's Day weekend, offering 1,000 renditions of the song over 50 hours and a free Guinness for the first 20 suicide attempts.

The song's lyrics were written by English lawyer Frederick Edward Weatherly, who never visited Ireland.

The Legend of the Beloved Irish Ballad." Weatherly's sister-in-law had sent him the music to an old Irish song called "The Derry Air." His new version was published in 1913 and became a huge hit when opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink recorded it in 1915.

Some say it is symbolic of the great Irish diaspora, with generations of Irish fleeing the potato famine starting around 1850.

Others have guessed it is sung by a mother grieving for her son or even by a desolate lover depending on how one hears lyrics like "The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying/ 'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide."

Like most sad Irish songs they are sung to invoke picture postcard memories of Ireland by people who have moved abroad and only miss the wet cold homeland after a few pints.

Another old favourite and the unofficial anthem of Dublin known as "Cockles and Mussels," the song tells the tale of a beautiful fishmonger who plies her trade on city streets and dies young of a fever.

Ah how the Irish love to cry into their pints.

Old Knudsen whose people were once labeled as the 'Rebellious Irish' by the English as he is of Scots/Irish blood said: "I quite like the 'wearing of the green' which is an anonymous Irish street ballad dating to 1798 when the English forbid the wearing of shamrocks in the hats known as 'The caubeen' as this was an act of rebellion punishable by hanging, much like when the Sassenachs forbid the Scots to wear clan tartans, the English are a silly wee people sometimes.

Heres the first verse."

O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep, his colour can't be seen,
For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the Green.

OBB News wishes all its readers a safe and happy St Patricks day and remember to drink irresponsibly.