Jack Byrne

I was recently reminded of my earliest flirtations with punk, I was never a full on punk and went to Eric’s no more than once or twice. I remember Bernie Connor who lived in the same street, playing The Stranglers’ ‘Peaches’ single to me when it first came out, he went on to become an afficionado of all things punk related and is today a well respected DJ on the scene.

For me it was more about the spirit of rebellion than the music, and someone I hadn’t spoken to in decades just reminded me that we organised a Rock Against Racism gig in Damwood Hall in Speke, and that Pete Wylie and an early form of Wah performed. The event ended in a mini riot, with a group of skinheads smashing the place up. The Mighty Wah and Pete Wylie also went on to play a central role in the Liverpool music scene.

It was in this context that the Pogues existed in the background to my life, I’m no expert on their music and never saw them live. I guess they were always present but never in focus for me. I identified much more with purity and pain in Sinéad O’Connor’s vocals. Before I knew anything about her life or background the singing on The Lion and The Cobra blew me away, her voice carried her power and pain in every note. My favourite of the Pogues was Fairytale in New York, for me it expressed the essence of emigration, all the longing and desperation of being away from home, with the trials and tribulations of life in a new country. The back and forth with Kirsty MaColl a memory of the drunken escapades of youth.

Shane MacGowan is rightly being celebrated as a central figure in the London Irish community, in the UK and global Irish diaspora, and he was. Shane and Sinéad O’Connor will be celebrated in death, although we should remember those in power in the media and society, often ridiculed and marginalised them in life. Shane, as a poet of working class experience and Sinéad in her rebellion against the strictures and crimes of the Catholic church. They were in some senses exiles from polite Irish society, like many of the people they sang for. They are now both resident in the land of legends.

For more personal reflections read The Mighty Shane and Sinead Part 2

My books based in the Irish diaspora available from
https://www.northodox.co.uk/product-page/the-liverpool-mysteries-series-books-1-3-paperback-pre-order