fbpx

What Do Van Morrison, the Godfather of Punk and Seamus Heaney Have in Common?

[additional-authors]
March 3, 2014

And then the arts. This matrix of Anglo-Catholic alchemy spawned such as John Butler Yeats, C.S. Lewis, Jack Higgins (who was raised here), Oscar Wilde (who schooled in County Fermanagh), Sir Kenneth Branagh, Patrick Magee, Sam Neill, Liam Neeson, and the most famous film star of the land, The DeLorean. There is not so much sun in this northern clip of the world, so folks are often inside sipping the hot cup of creativity, fanning the flames of magic turf. When I read, then, that one of my teenage heroes, Van Morrison, was being awarded “The Freeman of Belfast” honor (which allows him to drive his herd of sheep through the center of town), I knew I had to go and jump into this place. So well I remember standing on the sidelines at a high-school mixer, too shy to cross the room and make the ask. But when Gloria, performed by Them (named for the 1954 horror movie about giant radioactive ants) with the deep burr of Van Morrison's voice slashing through paper walls, came on the record player, I found a beat and a gift of confidence I never knew I had, and strutted across the floor and asked the most beautiful girl to dance. And she said, “yes.” I won't commit the crime of cliché and say his songs were the soundtrack of my life, but there were milestones marked in the Druidic forest trails of his music. “Moondance,” for instance, enabled my own passage to freemanhood, and I'm sure I am not alone in that refrain.

Terri Hooley first opened his record shop on Great Victoria Street in 1976, at the time the most bombed piece of real estate in the world. It quickly became a safe haven, a neutral harbor, at a time when things were very thin on the ground. Teens and lost tribes from all sections and classes, from both sides of the divide, joined by a love of music, hung out in peace, preferring tunes to stones, music and culture more than the dead hand of sectarianism. It was a firefly of light in the blackness of Belfast at the time. Though a Hank Willliams fan in a polo neck, when he heard Punk it screeched his being. “To be a punk was to be different from the past.”

“>2014-02-27-northernireland.jpg” title=”Ken the Poet by Deetrak, on Flickr”>Ken the Poet“>2014-02-27-seamusheanygrave.jpg“>2014-02-27-lougherne.jpg” title=”Lough Erne Resort by Deetrak, on Flickr”>Lough Erne Resort” title=”Belfast Skyline by Deetrak, on Flickr”>Belfast Skyline“>2014-02-27-richardjasperNorthernIreland2013.jpg

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Antisemitism, Deicide, and Revolution

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops did a remarkable thing: It issued a memorandum to all American Catholic bishops urging them to prepare their teachings carefully during this Easter period and ensure that they accurately present the Church’s positive teachings about Jews.

Chametz Is More than Crumbs in the Corners of our Homes

Chametz is also something that gathers in the corners of our being, the spiritual chametz that, like the physical particles we gather the night before Passover, can infect, wither, influence and sabotage us as we engage with others.

Alpine Flavors—a Crunchy Granola Recipe

Every Passover, I prepare a truly delicious gluten-free granola. I use lots of nuts and seeds (pistachios, walnuts, almonds and pumpkin seeds) and dried fruits (apricots, dates and cranberries).

Pesach Reflections

How does the Exodus story, Judaism’s foundational narrative of freedom, speak to the present? We asked local leaders, including rabbis, educators and podcasters, to weigh in.

Rosner’s Domain | Be Skeptical of Skeptics, Too

Whoever risks a decisive or semi-decisive prediction of the campaign’s end (and there is a long list of such figures on the Israeli side as well as the American side) is not demonstrating wisdom but rather a lack of seriousness.

When We Can No Longer Agree on Who Is Pharaoh

The Seder asks us to remain present to the tension between competing fears and obligations. It does not require choosing one lesson over the other, but rather, it creates space for us to articulate our concerns and listen to the fears and hopes that shape others’ views.

Pesach at War. Leaving Fast, Leaving Slow.

Freedom, it would seem, is erratic; it happens in fits and starts, three steps forward and two steps back. Freedom is a leap into the unknown, driven by a dream. We will figure it out in time.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.