Big Day Ends.

So the big day ended with Ireland winning The Six Nations championship to the great delight of the resident England support at The Lamb who had rallied behind the Irish for the occasion. The few Welsh supporters visable vanished into the night.

The televised Rugby was followed by a performance by the band 'Off The Square' who play Irish traditional music. I didnt sray for the whole performance as it had been a long day, but I was interested to note that the first vocal number was 'Green Grow The Rushes Oh'. words by Robert Burns who seems to have become an honourary Irishman for the occasion, partly on the ground that one of the band was born in Dumfries, the town where Burns is buried.

'Off The Square' do a very tasteful line in traditional Irish music but I prefer something a bit more racous myself. Something a bit closer to The Pogues, or The Dubliners, or even the Wolfe Tones. The sort of stuff you can roar along with after a number of Jamiesons or a few pints of the black stuff, if that is your bag. The splendid single by The Pogues and The Dubliners ' The Irish Rover' gets it about right.

When I was about Glasgow and had occasionly to visit pubs like Bairds Bar and The Tollbooth, the resident bands and musicians usually had a line in rousing songs about the Easter Rising and volunteers with armalites. Not the sort of material that would go down too well in The Lamb Inn, I suspect.