A City Full Of Singers

A City Full Of Singers
By Paul McCann

The colours of a rainbow arched themselves over the land as the sea link ferry docked at the Port of Dublin . In a short passage of time I had disembarked form the ferry in the car and drove along the Thomas Clarke Bridge to the city centre where I parked in a place there in Jervis Street .
After I booked a room at a hotel in Lower Stephen street I took my guitar and went for a walk . The rain had gone ad the sun shone upon a wild rose there growing on the side of the street , it was beautiful to see it there, between a crack on the hard pavement . No other rose could have been as wild I suppose with a rare beauty defying the harsh environment that surrounded it . I looked at its soft petals there that had fallen on the concrete and picked them up . I held them in my hands there for a moment and wanted to tell the whole world that I loved that rose that had found life in a lonely place on the street of Dublin but I let the petals fall from my hand and walked away in silence across the Liffey Bridge . Under the bridge the river flowed out to sea and over the bridge a rainbow stretched itself for all to see . I thought for a moment about rainbows and if there was gold at the end where ever that was . If only it were true I would fly to the sky and fill my pockets for a future where life could be so easy for me but I may as well build a castle in the sky and row a Curragh boat peacefully through the milky way . Onwards I went across the bridge to find a place to play a few songs for people to hear where ever that place was I had no idea .
I walked into Grafton Street that had a queue of buskers waiting to get a spot where they could play .I was told I needed get a license from the council to play in Grafton Street to busk . The place was alive with sound and excitement as people stampeded through the place with no end to the flurry of feet . I kept walking in search for a place to place but everywhere I went from street to street the scene was the same . I was in awe of the number of buskers who where there . On every corner of every street there was a talent so unique that they could make the big time anywhere in the world . I kept walking and looking for an hour and in the end I thought I’d come back later on in the evening and try again .
Later in the evening I returned to Temple Bar and found it was even busier than in the day . It was the same story as time went on and I learnt a lot about what made this place tick . It was explosive and passionate .
Life on the streets of Dublin was at a fast pace and if you blinked you would miss and if you tried to catch up with it you would need rockets in your shoes or wings on your back . There was something rare and raw about this place . It was a city with a history that had already captured tomorrow . There was an essence of taste in a colourful way that suited the moving picture show on the streets of Dublin like a musical jigsaw with so many buskers and musicians performing on the city streets . Buskers a living testimony of how the Irish love music and song . You can see it everywhere you go in a living legacy of pictures from life’s puzzle that spans centuries of suffering and hardship . It’s passionate and provocative and its talks about the hungry years of the famine as well as the virtues that have risen from oppression . Music and songs have embedded themselves into the foundation stone of the Irish nation .
The Irish have strived to share this passion as a tribute to accepting what they could not change . Generations of people have emigrated from Ireland bringing with them the wealth of their music and songs all over the world . Laying down tracks , recording their stuff and keeping the tradition alive . The Irish impact across the world has been felt in every place they have made their home . I think Irish culture and is like an endless song performed with delicate precision from their heart and soul kissed by the blessing of God . The Irish have a sad history but after every tear there is a smile hidden in a brave disguise waiting to emerge . The tracks of Irish tears have been etched with deep emotions in the songs they sing and the music they play . Listen to them and you will become connected to something strong and powerful . It will make you want to dance and sing . It will make you feel welcome where ever you come from , like a lost son or daughter who has been away for many years . When you discover that you’ll understand their sorrow and see life in a different way . It an extraordinary thing . There are songs with lyrical guts and melodies with heavenly airs all born from suffering . Bob Dylan once said if a song has been suffered for it will last that’s why Irish music has survived for so long . Dublin is like the mouth that speaks for the people and it will sing to you and toast your good health . It will ask you questions and tell you stories of wonder in this life that is full of conflict and change , challenge and success . What better hero is there than talent that comes to show an escape from the social closet of the times we live and the needs we have . Talent doesn't just doesn't happen , it's worked for very hard and its suffered for . I saw it there everywhere on the streets of Dublin where buskers arte queueing up to play everyday to the passing parade of tourists and locals .In a city of singers , some are just bred into the life . Its what they chose to do
Its what they all have in common . A love for songs and singing their cares away .
At the end of the day as the rain stared to fall , I thought to myself to take myself and the guitar back to the hostel in Frenchmans Lane but on the way I couldn’t resist the urge to sing to the city streets that were now empty of people , With no one around I walked across to O’Connell street in the rain . It was just after midnight and I started busking .There was nobody there on the street but me and I played a few songs for n one . My voice echoed like that of a rag and bone man looking for business .
Then in the distance coming down the street I saw the shape of a large shadowy figure that slowly transformed into a man . He walked up towards me in the rain and I kept on playing the cover of a U2 song ,” I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” .

He approached me where I was standing outside the GPO . Then he and put his big arms around me and gave me a big bear hug that nearly crushed the guitar .
“I love you .“
He said and then he walked away .
It was good that I had pleased somebody . So it was worth the effort . Dublin is a hard City to busk in but I found it a pretty place to visit .

The End

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