Playlist: To St. Patrick And His Day

Did you know that St. Patrick’s Day commemorates Ireland’s widespread acceptance of Christianity, to the credit of a young man named Patrick who would later become a patron saint of Ireland? I tried to find Patrick’s full original name for you, pre-sainthood, but gave up after a few minutes. My Irish Catholic girlfriend said that when a person is sainted, their original name is “wiped from the earth,” but I think she’s just kidding. Anyway! This Patrick kid was kidnapped at 16 and made a slave in Ireland, but then he escaped to Britain where I’m assuming he learned all about Christianity, and then he went BACK to Ireland to teach them how to be Christians instead of Celtic polytheists. Cheers!

So in honor of yet another holiday that we celebrate without really knowing why, we’ve put together a playlist of songs that could possibly make you feel like you’re in Ireland! (Unless you’re already in Ireland, in which case this whole playlist will probably seem silly. You could make a better one.) Or they could remind you of that time you went to an Irish pub that played Irish music. Or maybe it’s just a string of songs that include fiddles and bagpipes or neither and sound somewhat similar or not at all or are by Irish bands. Maybe, much like St. Patrick’s Day itself, this playlist can just be a good excuse to pause Lent, drink beer/whisky and sing along.

sorta

Roll Away Your Stone – Mumford & Sons
Streams of Whiskey – The Pogues
Untitled – Neutral Milk Hotel
O Valencia! – The Decemberists
Volcano – Damien Rice
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea – Neutral Milk Hotel
Drunken Lullabies – Flogging Molly
Rejoice – U2
Lorelei – Cocteau Twins
The Seven Deadly Sins – Flogging Molly
Mandinka – Sinead O’Conner
Zombie – The Cranberries
Sally MacLennane – The Pogues
There Will Always Be An Ireland – The Mountain Goats
Thickets – Patrick Wolf
Dil Nachde – Delhi 2 Dublin

STREAM THE PLAYLIST HERE

Want to suggest a playlist theme? Hit Crystal up on Formspring and someone on the team might make it for you.

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lnj

lnj has written 310 articles for us.

43 Comments

  1. zoooooooombie!!! IN YOUR HEAD <3

    Yes. I mean I'm currently trying to forget my that my ex-Irish-girlfriend dumped me recently but ZOMBIEEEE

    Thanks for this x

  2. Im not sure what i think of some of the choices in this but at least its giving me something to listen to as england beat ireland in rugby :( good job i guess :)

  9. I must protest the exclusion of Dropkick Murphys, it’s not St. Patrick’s day without DKM

  10. Against Me!- Pints of Guinness Will Make you Strong
    Flogging Molly- If I Ever Leave This World Alive
    (Both because I like my Irish-ish songs depressing)

    And..
    Dropkick Murphy’s- The Dirty Glass

  12. Also, according to a new academic paper (that I read about on jezebel), apparently it’s likely that St. Patrick had been a tax collector in Roman Britain and moved to Ireland so he could trade slaves.

  16. Nice mix. I would like to suggest Grada because they are fun and Irish and have fiddles. Also Sinead Lohan (90’s, yay!). Oh and The Frames, The Frames!

    • YES the Frames :) … and the Swell Season are equally tremendous (and only 50% less Irish)

  17. I listened to the Pogues and Flogging Molly while remaining modestly drunk throughout the day, mostly in a pub, although there was Chinese food involved later on.

    • oh good I thought I was the only Pogues listener. I played them at work, no one could understand the words so I was ok, I did see a few puzzled looks like, no..that couldn’t be what I heard…

  18. I’m sorry but has nobody ever heard of the Irish lesbian musician wallis Bird? you have to, have to, HAVE TO check her out. do yourself a favour……

  19. Ahh St. Patricks, also known as my birthday! I went out and all the beer was green, but that is fine cos I don’t like beer anyway.

  22. my St Patrick’s Day playlist: Pogues, Dropkick Murphy’s, Flogging Molly, more Pogues, Cranberries, Chieftains, a random fiddle instrumental song, more Pogues.

    my St Patrick’s day drinking list: Smithwick’s, Guinness, Harpoon (from Boston so it’s practically Irish), Jameson, more Smithwick’s.

    it was a very fine day indeed.

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