Vashti Bunyan - Just Another Diamond Day: youtube.com/watch?v=lwSTf_sekv4
I've been told that both sides of my family came from Ireland during the potato famine. When I was a kid I thought the concept of a "potato famine" was ridiculous as I looked down at my supper plate of potatoes, meat and vegetables. Why didn't they just eat something else? Did they love potatoes that much that they couldn't just eat something else? But I was a kid, what did I know.
Anyway, both sides of my family came to Canada from Ireland during the potato famine. And where I grew up there was an island just outside the town. Apparently as the boats full of weary, tired and sick Irish pulled into New Brunswick they dropped off all the sick on the island, leaving just the weary and tired to continue. Those sick who somehow recovered on this tiny island formed a small community and became the core of what is now my "hometown" of Miramichi.
This could all be misinformation, misconstruction or myth. I don't know. What I do know, though, with a certainty, is that I am descended from the Irish. And you know how I know this? Because we didn't listen to Irish music in my household, save perhaps the occasional Pogues song. However, somehow, every Irish sounding song I hear captures me fully. There is something inherent in the structure and the sound of Irish music that compels me more than any other music. I wasn't exposed to it, it's not like some hearkening nostalgia, it's just inherent inside of me. It's in my blood from the people whose line I've followed, who have long died and who exist still in my blood. I have no evidence for this, I just know.
It breaks my heart.
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