Belting out the Croppy Boy
By Laurence McKeown
I was listening to the `Sunday Show' with Andy O'Mahony on RTE 1
the other Sunday morning. Not a bad show. The first I've listened
to it. Like all RTE current affairs programmes at that time the
topic of discussion was the presidential election and the issue
of Mary McAleese.
The views expressed were fairly similar to what had been heard
several times already, nothing startling. What did astound me was
that in a musical interlude we were treated to Liam Clancy giving
a very good rendition of `The Croppy Boy'. Initially I thought my
ears were playing tricks with me. This was RTE after all. I was
on the point of rising to check if somehow the radio had tuned to
another channel or a CD or something, but no, there it was, RTE
belting out The Croppy Boy. I was amazed.
My thoughts drifted back to teenage years when listening to rebel
ballads was a regular pastime. (Since then I have become a wee
bit more discerning in my choices of music). I had a rather crude
device rigged up in the house; a car stereo, which my father had
purchased but never installed, plugged into a transformer and
powered from the mains electricity.
It had been a major revelation to me through the pages of
`Exchange and Mart' that such a thing as a transformer existed.
It meant I could borrow tapes from my mate who had a fairly
extensive collection of them. Those were the days of the 8-track
cassette, a totally baffling term then and now as I could never
work out what was meant by 8-track. They were massive, almost as
big as today's video cassettes. But the system worked, which was
the main thing and I had hours of listening pleasure at low cost.
Thoughts turned back to RTE and the Croppy Boy and it was then I
began to wonder if Eoghan Harris, who had been referred to a
number of times on the show, was listening. I reckoned that if he
was then we could safely assume that the Gardai, the Air Force,
the Navy, the Civil Defence and all other such bodies would have
already been informed that the Shinners had taken over the
airwaves at Donnybrook. His worst fears, and predictions, come
true.
As Liam Clancy brought the `Croppy Boy' to a rousing end I feared
that conversation on the show would go back to what it had been
previous, that no reference would be made at all to what we had
just heard, that life would go on as if nothing had happened, but
no, it provoked discussion. Comments were made that it as not so
long ago that songs of that type would have been censored on RTE
and particular instances were referred to.
There was even laughter that such could or should have been the
case. It then transpired that the brother of one of the panel had
penned the words of `Only Our Rivers Run Free' which hasn't been
heard on RTE le fada an lá.
My thoughts drifted again from the programme to what lay behind
this amazing change of policy - that the Croppy Boy would be
played in the middle of a current affairs programme. Was there a
maverick at work? Was this a musical leak? Or was this cleared at
the highest levels? More light was thrown on the subject when I
lifted a certain Sunday newspaper shortly afterwards and read
that Liam Clancy had been heard the previous Wednesday on no less
than the Gay Byrne show singing The Rising of the Moon. There was
more than a hint from the writer that RTE had a financial
interest in promoting this particular album.
One week later all was revealed through the informative columns
of this very newspaper. RTE in conjuction with Comoradh `98 and
Enigma records have produced `Who Fears to Speak, The Official
1798 Bicentenary'.
I think initially I was a bit disappointed that financial
interest rather than a genuine republican sentiment to
commemorate the patriots of that time was the reason for the new
departure within RTE. But then I thought, what the heck. If RTE
is making a financial contribution to the production of such an
album then they must believe there is a market out there for that
type of material, that people have an interest in our past, a
desire to discover their roots, to look afresh at the revisionism
that has dominated the teaching of history (and the playing of
music) in the southern part of our country for too many years.
That can only be for the good. As I have said before in this
column, the times they are a changin'.
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