I think it’s been something that has been happening for a long time, but as soon as St. Patrick’s Day comes around everyone and their granny and their favourite rock band are declared to be Irish.
This morning I got an email newsletter from Joost, an online video service that’s been struggling to stay afloat amongst heavy competition from other online video providers.
Anyway, one thing caught my eye in their listing of a playlist of music of Irish artists, which reads as follows.
ERIN GO BRAGH! LISTEN TO THE PLAYLIST
We’ve compiled all your favorite artists from the Emerald Isle – U2, Snow Patrol, Morrissey, Def Leppard and more…Sláinte!
Now unless I’m wholesale mistaken Joost are so incredibly wrong with this list.
- Def Leppard – these guys are from Sheffield, England.
- Morrissey – born in Lancashire, England.
- Snow Patrol – whilst I think the band members are originally Northern Irish by nationality, the band was formed and grew out of Dundee in Scotland.
- U2 – Ok, everyone thinks of these guys as Irish, but they can fuck right off. They’ll take the tax breaks whilst they can here, but as soon as things go a bit bleaker they’re out of here quicker than you can say “Bono is a total cunt”. Also, I could be nitpicking but but Adam Clayton was born in Oxfordshire, UK and The Edge was born in East London to Welsh parents.
Ireland has some really fantastic music come out of it over the years, so come on Joost, do a tiny tiny bit of research before you go sending out something stupidly embarrassing like this. A two-second search on Wikipedia reveals a category on Irish Musical groups. You could have mentioned Thin Lizzy, The Pogues, The Dubliners, Planxty, The Divine Comedy, Therapy?, hell you could have said Brendan Shine and I’d have been happier.
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