OK, so I am VERY LATE in turning on to Luke Kelly and The Dubliners. I will blame my father, who was a goodly part "Scotch," as my ancestors well before old Harvey put it in their family records. He actually had the nerve to reject my mother Joanne Theresa Gilboy Barnes's name choice for the unborn baby she was pregnant with, that would be their seventh son and eleventh child.

She wanted to name him Patrick, no doubt in honor of our fine Irish ancestors and their beloved saint, who some historians think may have been a Welshman, though he was certainly a Roman Briton.
Dad, having that snobby Scottish side (I assume), rejected the proposal with a curt: "It's too Irish."

So, Joanne Gilboy Barnes gave birth to that boy on St. Patrick's Day, and named him Sean Michael.

I must maintain that Scottish people are merely Irish who crossed a pond, had to constantly fight Picts, Romans, English, Vikings and others for 2,000 years, and developed an attitude. I hear they don't smile in Scotland, but I don't believe it.

OK , no more preambles... Other than to say that one night about seven years back I just missed Bruce Foley and his band playing at the Map Room in Regent Square and was sitting at the nearly empty bar. Bruce was there at the bar, with a friend of his, another Irish-American, named John, along with a real live dark-haired Irishman, a fellow named Liam, from mother Erin (Ireland).

We got to chatting and then got to singing, with me kicking it off with Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair (it's actually a Scottish song). Liam chimed in with On Raglan Road, a song about unrequited love which I was unfamiliar with at the time. He sang it in this raspy, soulful, rather pained baritone, and he was amazing. Ever since, I have wondered about it and for some reason, I recently looked it up.

That's how I found Luke Kelly, and was immediately hooked. On Raglan Road, sung by Kelly, is pretty much the way it should be sung, I believe. Liam did a good Kelly version when he sang it.

The Irish song is actually originally a poem by the poet Patrick Kavanagh, who wrote it about a med school student he fell for when he was 40 and she was 22 (Hilda Moriarty). Kavanagh urged Kelly to sing it. Van Morrison is the one who originally adapted the poem to music, if I got the story right. But I don't like Van's version anywhere close to Luke's, which says a lot because I love Van Morrison.

So check out On Raglan Road, by Luke Kelly:https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=luke+klly+sings+on+raglan+road&view=detail&mid=0203687EC7AA12DBD9660203687EC7AA12DBD966&FORM=VIRE

Check out The Wild Rover, another favorite of mine:https://www.bing.com/search?q=luke%20kelly%20th%20wild%20rover&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1&pq=luke%20kelly%20th%20wild%20rover&sc=1-24&sk=&cvid=2919C671A73B45C49B269073510DEB16

And also treat yourself to Maids When You're Young Never Wed An old Man, you will laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5StzrUgmBc