‘Sing a Powerful Song’: The Saw Doctors, sports and singing Irish identities

Abstract

Sport and popular music have ever-increasing connections. Most major sporting events and teams now use popular music as official theme songs. Other popular music is expropriated by sports fans as a way of expressing their collective identities. Less common is the incorporation of sports-specific references within the lyrics of most songs in popular music. An exception is The Saw Doctors, a band from Tuam in County Galway, Ireland, led by Davy Carton and Leo Moran. This contribution analyses the links between popular music and sport, particularly sports sanctioned by the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) as represented in the songs of The Saw Doctors and their temporary offshoot group The Folk Footballers. I first typify three categories of sport and popular music arguing that The Saw Doctors case study fits into a category of deeper connection between sport and popular music that is worthy of exploration and understanding. I examine the cultural context out of which their music has arisen and suggest the particular ways in which the GAA organizes sport in Ireland and the cultural embeddedness of music in Tuam explains the deep connection between sport and popular music and identity.

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Leo Moran of The Saw Doctors for providing perspectives on the band's approach to Gaelic football in their music, Paul Darby of University of Ulster for reminding me to include Bruce Springsteen's ‘Wrecking Ball’ and for reading a draft of this contribution, Mike Cronin of Boston College - Ireland, for providing me with a copy of ‘The First Fifteen’ by The Folk Footballers many years ago and David Black of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia for introducing me to the music of The Saw Doctors (and Great Big Sea) back in 1997 during my study leave in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Notes

^1. ‘Idol Winner Phillip Phillips Releases “Home” Video, Gets a Sales Boost from the Olympics’, http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/08/03/idol-winner-phillip-phillips-releases-home-video-gets-a-sales-boost-from-olympics/ (accessed August 8, 2012). The ‘Fab Five’ won the team gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics and are Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Jordyn Wieber and Kyla Ross.

^2. For a discussion of the Footscray and other campaigns to save sports teams in Australia, see Phillips and Nauright, ‘Sports Fan Movements’.

^3. Some of these calypsos can be seen in the documentary film Fire in Babylon (2009). Cf. Westall, ‘“This Thing Goes Beyond the Boundary”’.

^4. The Footy Show is a weekly television show in Melbourne, Australia, that analyses, parodies and entertains during the Australian Football League season. A show of the same name with a different cast on the same network in Sydney, Australia, focused on the sport of rugby league. For analysis of the Melbourne Footy Show, see Brooks, ‘“More Than a Game”’.

^5. I am thinking here in a Geertzian manner. See Geertz, ‘Deep Play’.

^6. , ‘Beyond Sectarianism’; and ‘Uíbh Fhalí’.

^7. Cronin, ‘Beyond Sectarianism’, 234.

^8. Field notes from conversations with local musicians at Gus O'Connor's Pub in Doolin, County Clare, June 16, 1997.

^9. Cronin, ‘Beyond Sectarianism’, 230–5. The term ‘folk footballers’ clearly conjures up an organic meaning going back to the days when football matches were less routine and localized events, the type of football historians typify as ‘folk football’.

^10. Furlong, Irish Tourism, 58.

^11. For more on the 1947 All-Ireland Final and the GAA in the USA, see Darby, Gaelic Games, Nationalism.

^12. Furlong, Irish Tourism, 58.

^13. Both versions can be seen online via YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = TQn4eVdXy_w&feature = relmfu (accessed August 11, 2012).

^14. ‘I Useta Lover is named Ireland's favourite number 1 single of all time’, http://www.sawdoctors.com/index.php/news/59-all-news/852-i-useta-lover-is-named-irelands-favourite-number-1-single-of-all-time (accessed August 14, 2012).

^15. The Comhaltus Ceoltóirí Éireann or Musicians Association of Ireland, founded in 1951, was created to preserve and promote traditional Irish music, dance and language.

^16. Moran quoted in ‘The Saw Doctors Biography’, http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/The-Saw-Doctors-Biography/C5E8EECABD77622848256CCD00250AA8 (accessed August 8, 2012). The biography is updated from Johnny Black's 1998 biography of the band.

^17. See Kaul, Turning the Tune, 49.

^18. The story is that Jarlath, a monk, was sent out to set up a mission and instructed to go until his cartwheel broke. This happened on the site of Tuam and thus he established a presence for the Church there. In ‘All the Way from Tuam’, The Saw Doctors sings that they are ‘from the town that was built where the cart-wheel was broken’.

^19. ‘History of Tuam’, The Tuam Guide, http://www.tuam-guide.com/history.htm (accessed October 12, 2011).

^20. Quoted in ‘Tuam: The Home of Football Fervour’, Irish Independent, September 23, 2001, http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/tuam-the-home-of-football-fervour-510519.html (accessed August 12, 2012).

^21. For more detail on the early history of the modern Tuam music scene, see the ‘Music from Tuam Town’ documentary available in three parts on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = 7nf4UF7-KKk (accessed August 9, 2012).

^22. Séisun is a Gaelic term that refers to a convivial gathering often involving the playing of music and the drinking of beer or whiskey. In recent times, the term has been used almost exclusively in reference to a musical performance, mostly in pubs in Ireland or in Irish themed pubs around the world where traditional or Irish-themed music is performed. In Turning the Tune, Adam Kaul examines the transformation of the séisun into a session or concert. This has transferred the primary benefit from the performers to the audience.

^23. M. Christopher, ‘Play It Again Sham!’, Pop Matters, April 15, 2003, http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/saw-doctors-030415 (accessed August 10, 2012).

^24. See information at http://www.sawdoctors.com (accessed March 1, 2012).

^25. Kaul, Turning the Tune, 86.

^26. Correspondence with Leo Moran, August 6, 2012.

^27. For more detail on GAA history, see Cronin, Murphy, and Rouse, GAA: A People's History.

^28. American university, Notre Dame, whose team is ‘The Fighting Irish’ has played several college football games at Croke Park and rugby and soccer have now been played there; however, the reluctance of the GAA to use the stadium for the European football championships in 2008 led to the proposed Scotland–Ireland joint bid failing.

^29. For a discussion of this, see McDevitt, May the Best Man Win, especially chap. 2 ‘Strong Men, Free Men: Gaelic Team Sports and Irish Masculinity’, 14–36.

^30. See Mandle, Gaelic Athletic Association. The event was recreated in the Neil Jordan directed 1996 film Michael Collins.

^31. Interview with Leo Moran, October 14, 2011.

^32. To gain a fuller understanding of the greatness of Sean Purcell, see Sean Purcell, ‘Master of Them All’, Shot 5 Productions, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = 4E6c6Q8wkis&feature = relmfu. The soundtrack is supplied by The Folk Footballers.

^33. Quoted in ‘Tuam: The Home of Football Fervour’, Irish Independent, September 23, 2001, http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/tuam-the-home-of-football-fervour-510519.html (accessed August 12, 2012).

^34. Moran interview, October 14, 2011.

^35. Moran interview, October 14, 2011.

^36. Quoted in ‘Tuam: The Home of Football Fervour’, Irish Independent, September 23, 2001, http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/tuam-the-home-of-football-fervour-510519.html (accessed August 12, 2012).

^37. ‘Ian Gallagher Home Page’, http://www.iangallagher.com/PadraigStevens.html (accessed August 20, 2012); and ‘Saw Doctors E to I’, http://gnomes.0catch.com/saw_doc_e_to_i_page.htm (accessed August 20, 2012).

^38. Newsletter front page can be seen at http://iusetalover.com/news.html.

^39. Cronin, ‘Beyond Sectarianism’, 234.

^40. Moran Interview, October 14, 2011.

^41. This rendition of ‘Maroon and White Forever’ can be viewed on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = eZ2__xGKaEo&playnext = 1&list = PL5A00A515779E38C9&feature = results_video (accessed October 11, 2011).

^42. A. Murdoch, ‘Putting Galway in the Smut: Jills, Smuts and Feeks’, http://iusetalover.com/nl/smut.html (accessed August 11, 2012).

^43. ‘Morris Save Kills Off Tuam Revival’, Irish Independent, October 31, 2011, http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/morris-save-kills-off-tuam-revival-2921317.html (accessed August 12, 2012).