What “Irish” Means: A Discussion with Author and Black 47 Front Man Larry Kirwan (Pretty Much Pop: A Culture Podcast #86)

Anoth­er St. Patrick­’s Day has passed, and this one prob­a­bly with­out a lot of green-beer-at-the-pub-action. Let’s talk about what sort of rep­re­sen­ta­tion of Ire­land we were sup­posed to get out of all that mer­ri­ment, as it’s cer­tain­ly not akin to the stern, very reli­gious cer­e­monies that we the grow­ing-up expe­ri­ence of our guest Lar­ry, who’s writ­ten books, plays and many songs ema­nat­ing from and often about his Irish her­itage.

He joins Mark, Eri­ca, and Bri­an to dis­cuss the appeal in the U.S. of Irish cul­ture and how it relates to his­to­ry, who gets to define what’s authen­ti­cal­ly Irish, slurs and stereo­types, the range of Irish music, the char­ac­ter of Irish humor, Lar­ry’s jour­ney as front man for Black 47, and his new nov­el about Irish cops on 9/11: Rock­away Blue (enter 09FLYER at check­out on the Cor­nell Press site for a dis­count).

Watch one of Black 47’s old videos. Wikipedia lies about Tim. What is Ire­land’s REAL nation­al col­or?