May I begin by saying that i like the site a lot. Thank you and well done. I am glad that I have an internet connection to your site, amongst others, rather than a TV.

Can I just ask, have you watched this film?

Do chara buan,
Theobald Wolfe Tone

I actually think that people put too much store in authenticity and that both Dylan and MacGowan are so creative that the personas that they reworked have become something in their own right.

But the problem with MacGowan, who, when I saw him perform last St. Patrick’s day, was in a wheelchair, is that he is both literally killing himself for his art, and in a way that glamorizes a stereotypical view of Irish people, in an era when Upper East Side New York condos are being advertised in Dublin as cheaper property than the local stuff.

For what its worth, and not much, I’ll say this as a Celt who used to think playing this suffering drunk poet persona was cool and convincing.

He spent much of his childhood shuttling between his Irish family in London and Ireland, both parents were not wealthy and he got a free scholarship to Westminster school which only lasted a couple of months before he was expelled for drug possession.

Whilst the myth of the alcohol soaked Irish poet genius is just that, in his case he is the realest of deals. It was my fortune to drink in the same London pub as him and I can attest to his pordigious appetites. He is a man who has lived his life being incredibly true to his own self, regardless of the damage it has caused.

Again, love the site, just had to try to correct the myth.

A good article about him is here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/dec/21/folk.music