Monty Python Upperclass Brit of the Year

The Upperclass Brit of the Year race (full version with all events) from Monty Python's Flying Circus

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Brit Food Monty Python

Monty Python's Flying Circus! i give youuuuuSpam

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The Blue Danube in Ireland , 2 versions

Andre Rieu - live from DublinMonty Python: Blue Danube on the Border

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Kayla Nic Dhunnacha - An Spailpín Aerach - Abair Amhrán

An Spailpín Fánach

(The Wandering Labourer ... Have a go yourself at the lyrics ?

This is a lament of a man who had to become a "Spailpín" because of his family's eviction. To avoid this terrible life, he joined the French army to fight overseas.
The life of a Spailpín or an itinerant farm worker in Ireland up into the 20th century was extremely harsh. Hard physical labour, low wages and maltreatment by landowners had to be endured by these men and women. Even the word 'Spailpín' came to mean a person of low or poor character. (www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/8998 /anspailpin.html)

Seo í an fhéile Éireannach is mó agus is cáiliúla ar an domhan...

www.riochtnangael.org/


Is spailpín aerach tréitheach mise agus bígí ag soláthar mná dhom
Mar scaipfinn an síol faoi dhó san Earrach in éadan taltaí bána
Mar scaipfinn an síol faoi dhó san Earrach, in éadan taltaí bána
Mo lámha ar an gcéachta i ndiaidh na gcapall 's go réabfainnse cnoic le fána.

Mo chúig céad slan leat, a dhúthaigh m'athar, is go deo deo don oileán grámhar,
Is don scata fear óg atá 'mo dhiaidh ag baile, nach gclisfeadh orm in am a ghátair!
Tá Baile Átha Cliath dóite, is tógfar Gaillimh, beidh lasair 'ainn ar thinte cnámha,
Beidh fíon agus beoir ar bord ag m'athair -- sin cabhair ag an Spailpín Fánach!
An chéad lá i nÉirinn dar liostail mise, ó bhí me súgach sasta
'S an darna lá dar liostail mise, ó bhí me buartha cráite;
Ach an triú lá dar liostail mise, thabharfainn cúig céad púnt ar fhágail,
Ach go dtugainn sin agus an oiread eile, ní raibh mo phas le fáil a'm.
Agus bhí mise lá breá ar mhargadh Chill Chainnigh is tháinig sé go trom ag báisteach,
Is tharraing me isteach is chuir mé cúl ar balla agus thosaigh mé ag glaoch na gcárta.
Nár ghlaoigh isteach orm bean an leanna a súil le n-ól mo phaídhe
'S dheamhan deoir dár glaodh as sin go maidin nach raibh thíos in aghaidh an Spailpín Fánach.
Ó 'gus bhí mise lá breá thíos i nGaillimh is bhí an abhainn ag gabháil le fána,
Bhí an breac's an eascainn is an beairtín sláta ann is chuile ní dhá bhreácha
Ó bhí mná óga ann múinte tógtha, 'siad a bhí tanaí tláth deas,
Ach dheamhan bean óg dá suínnse léi nach gcuirfinn an dubh ar a mbán di.
Agus b'fhaide liomsa lá bheinn i dteach gan charaid na bliain mhór fhada is ráithe,
Mar is buachaillín aerach mé, súgach meanmach a bhréagfadh bruinneal mhanla.
Agus dhá bhean déag a bhí ag éad 's ag iomaí liom, a súil le tairbhe mo laidhe --
S'é paidir na caillí nuair a théinn thar a tairseach, "now behave yourself, a Spailpin Fanach!

Kayla Nic Dhunnacha - An Spailpin Aerach - Abair Amhran 134851 www.tg4.ie (less) My StumbleUpon Page

PEOPLE POWER DAY 2

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/video/2008/jan/24/rafah.reactions

US presses Egypt on Gaza border

Gazans have been returning with everything from fuel to camels
The US has urged the Egyptian government to secure its border with Gaza after thousands of people crossed from the Israeli-blockaded territory.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she understood it was "difficult" but the border "needs to be protected".

Militants destroyed parts of the fence on Wednesday, sparking an exodus.

Hundreds of Egyptian security personnel have moved into the area but have not yet tried to stop the traffic, BBC correspondent Ian Pannell said.

Ms Rice, arriving for talks in Colombia, said she understood Egypt's position, but said: "It is an international border, it needs to be protected and I believe that the Egyptians understand the importance of doing that."

EGYPT-GAZA BORDER
12km (7.4 miles) long
Egyptian side patrolled by 750 soldiers under 2005 agreement with Israel
Border crossing terminal south of town of Rafah
PA control of terminal under EU supervision collapsed after Hamas takeover of Gaza in June 2007. Border closed almost continuously since.

'Wartime' on Israeli border
The United Nations has calculated that as much as half of the 1.5 million population of the territory has crossed the border, according to the AFP news agency.

Our correspondent says there are so many Palestinians in Rafah that it is almost as if the town has been annexed by Gaza.

The main street has become an enormous open-air market, selling all kinds of goods, including fuel, goats and other livestock, and cigarettes.

Joe Cooley - Wise Maid - Joe Burke - Paddy Glackin

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Legacyrxawd
Reply |
The more modern B/C style, popularized mainly by Paddy O'Brien and Joe Burke, is "across the rows" all the time in order to play in the fiddle keys of D, G & A, and it became popular because it enabled the button accordion players of 50 years ago to play more like a fiddle and in concert pitch.
Legacyrxawd (4 months ago) Show Hide Marked as spam
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Reply |
Joe Cooley's style of playing was an older "straight-row" one, mainly on the inside row but using the outside one for semitones and ornamentation. In his day accordions tuned in C#/D were virtually unknown so he played a D/D# in Eb, Ab & Bb and other musicians (like Dessie Mulkere on the banjo) had to tune up a semitone to play with him, but this has the advantage of more "cut" in a noisy environment.
Legacyrxawd (4 months ago) Show Hide Marked as spam
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Sorry, but they never made a grey Paolo Soprani with that grille, or with a badge on it like that, and though a red 3-voice is much rarer than the 2-coupler 4-voice version, the 3-voice grey ones are actually much more common than the 2-coupler 4-voice ones (indeed the latter are extremely hard to find). Also, while Paddy O'Brien and Joe Burke were popularizing the B/C system, Joe Cooley stuck to the old "press and draw" style on a D/D#, which adds extra "lift" to his playing.
Legacyrxawd (4 months ago) Show Hide Marked as spam
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I'm sorry nedw1234, but you have no idea what you are talking about and really shouldn't contradict someone who does. Joe played D/D# not B/C and whilst he had formerly played the older grey Paolo Sopranis (and I know somebody who plays a D/D# one that was once his), the instrument in the film clip is a later red one that he was given before he left for America. Ask Dessie Mulkere, he'll tell you!


Joe Burke on the Box and Paddy Glackin Fiddle. Joe is one of the best box players in the traditional Irish music scene.
BORN in Kilnadeema, south of Loughrea in Co Galway in 1939, Joe Burke was introduced to music at an early age. His mother played the box in the old style. He recalls that he was four years of age when he first started playing. "There was always dancing in the house," he told one interviewer. His uncle taught him his first tune - Let Erin Remember. As far back as he can remember there was a gramophone in the house and he remembers listening to early 1930s recordings by the Ballinakill Ceili Band and Michael Coleman.
His most significant instructors were the Downey family of Leitrim Cross, also near Loughrea. "A great music house, millions of tunes." Two or three nights every week the young Joe Burke played with Jack Downey and learned his trade. There were also good players around Ballinakill, between Woodford and Loughrea: Stephen, Eddie and Ambrose Moloney and members of the White family, from whom Burke learned his music.
In the Fifties he bought an accordion in Waltons of Dublin for £5 which he still has. The one he plays most often was custom-made by the French maker Bertrand Gaillard and the reeds are hand-made by an Italian, Binci.
He won the All-Ireland Senior Accordion Championship in Thurles in 1959 and again in 1960 in Boyle. He withdrew from competition after that believing in a convention that the victor lets others have a chance of winning.
In 1955 he was part of the newly-formed Leitrim Ceile Band, with such players as Ned Coleman, Oliver Roland, Paddy Downey, Sean McGlynn, Paddy Doorley, Jack Derven and Mick Darcy. Later the band was joined by Michael Joe Doorley and flute player Paddy Carty.
"The first night we played in Galway Rowing Club. We each got £1 a night at that time," he once said. Later the pay rose to thirty shillings. The band won two All Ireland titles. He left the Leitrim Ceili Band around 1962.
He was now playing a lot in England. "In the Galtimore in Cricklewood, you could have 2,000 people."
In 1961 he visited the United States for the first time with singer Sean O Siochain, harpist Kathleen Watkins, Eileen Markey and singer Edmund Browne, touring about 16 cities. Club owner Bill Fuller brought him back the following year to play Chicago and New York, accompanied by a drummer. In the blossoming folk scene of the Sixties, Burke found work in Ireland, England, Scotland and Germany and the US.
He toured England and Scotland regularly with the great Belfast fiddle player Sean Maguire and in the US with Andy McGann.

Stylish player
1989 represented Ireland at the International Accordion Festival in Montmagny, Quebec, and again in 1992, teaming up with international names such as Marc Savoy and Art Van Dame in "Accordions that Shook the World." In 1997 won an AIB Traditional Musician Award, a Galway honour won also by Mairtin O'Connor and Frankie Gavin.
Influenced by the Nenagh box player Paddy O'Brien (1922-91), who helped replace the old push and draw method of box playing with the B/C style, Burke is noted for his stylish use of triplets and rolls. He has given workshops and masterclasses at home and abroad and has influenced a generation of box players.
Married Anne Conroy of Abbey, near Loughrea, in 1990. She played accordion and guitar with the group Oisin and today they regularly feature as a duet.They have restored the old family home in Kilnadeema and have begun a music school where they run classes in the winter.
In late 2002 he released an album The Morning Mist, named after the only tune he has composed to date. The tune was previously recorded by the Liverpool Ceili Band among others.

PEOPLE POWER

Other Photos ??? You Know !







Irish people send Congratulations to the people of Gaza, who have smashed their way out of the Concentration Camp created by Israel. We know what its like to have your lands invaded. This is a report by one of the few decent reporters left with the BBC, whom they have not, surprisingly censored yet.


http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6863965268873608942

By Ian Pannell
BBC News, Gaza border

Palestinians on the fence at Gaza's Rafah crossing with Egypt, 23 Jan 2008
Palestinians flooded over the border as the wall tumbled down
It has been a memorable day for the Palestinians of Gaza - a day when they decided to try to end the Israeli blockade for themselves.

Quite who helped them is not altogether clear although few think it could have been done without the support of Hamas - the militant Islamic group that has been running Gaza since autumn last year.

With explosives and some pretty advanced cutting equipment to hand, the border wall literally came tumbling down.

The sound and the news spread through Gaza and as dawn broke thousands of people left their homes and surged across no man's land and on into Egypt with a massive show of people power.

"People are very happy. We have been living like birds in a cage. Now we have been released, we are so happy," said Mohammed, a Palestinian at the border.


Map

Eyewitness: Drama at border
In pictures: Border breached
Gaza diary: Day Two

Most came to shop, desperate to stock up on goods that have become increasingly scarce as the blockade has gone on.

There were old men herding goats across the border and youngsters carrying boxes of crisps and cheese.

Donkeys pulling wooden carts laden with cement weaved along the muddy road to the border.

There were shiny Chinese motorcycles and dusty cartons of cigarettes.

Women clad in black carried rolled-up rugs on their backs and fridge-freezers were hauled slowly through the crowds.

Above all people were after fuel, the shortage of which seemed to precipitate this crisis.

Families divided

Petrol stations were besieged by Gazans wielding plastic canisters.

Some enterprising Bedouin brought large tankers to the border site to allow people to fill up (and pay up) more easily.

Others had more pressing needs.

Blockade incites press anger

I watched a man in a wheelchair being carried above the heads of the crowds and into a waiting ambulance.

Families, divided by the closed border, were reunited and took the chance to move all their possessions from one side of the border to the other.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak offered his support to the Palestinians saying he had authorised the crossing.

"I told them, let them come in to eat and buy food, then go back as long as they're not carrying any weapons," he said.

It was a fanciful statement at best.

Police powerless

The Egyptian border police were powerless to stop the crowd.

Only 24 hours earlier, they had been beating and spraying Palestinian protesters with water cannon.

Israel has called on Egypt to take control of the border and says it is worried that weapons will be smuggled into Gaza.

But it remains unclear what practically could be done.

Egyptian security forces are significantly outnumbered here and any move against the Palestinians would be hugely unpopular both at home and elsewhere in the Arab world.

There is also the risk that it could spark a clash with Hamas gunmen, who have a significant presence on the border.

The damage to the boundary wall is extensive.

In some places there are hundreds of metres of corrugated metal that have been felled and thousands of people continued to move in both directions late into the night.

For now no-one seems in control here and there is little will politically or practically to mend this particular problem.

Peter Sellers : A Drop Of The Hard Stuff

A Peter Sellers classic recording from 1958. No pop videos were made in those days but one probably wouldn't have survived from this session anyway. Black & White film from Uist and Ireland.Sellers moved to ireland for a year for tax reasons...peter sellers pink panther goons