By Mary Tucker

We had a small group at lunch, which consisted of a chicken casserole, a green salad, Irish Soda Bread and four desserts, pie, rice pudding, brownies and cake for the March 17^th club meeting. As it was St. Patrick’s Day, Pastor Susan Woodworth and husband, Pastor Bob Kersten, entertained us with a selection of Irish tunes. After performing a duet of three verses of Danny Boy they led a sing-along of other popular Irish songs. The duet piqued my interest as I knew of only one verse. Looking Danny Boy up on the computer, I found that the song has three verses and is not considered the national anthem of Ireland; in fact it is rarely played or sung there. The song was written in 1910 by an Englishman, Frederick Weatherly, after his sister sent him a copy of music adapted from an old Irish folksong Londonderry Air. Weatherly was a lawyer, an entertainer, a composer and an artist-a man for all seasons. Weatherly’s sister liked the song titled Danny Boy so much she sent a copy to a friend in the NYC Fire Department. The firemen chose to march to Danny Boy in the St. Patrick’s Day parade and it has been used as a marching song on St. Patrick’s Day since. There are many versions of the history of the song; who wrote it, when and why was it written, what does it mean? This is just one of them.

Because several members were not available to make their reports, the meeting scheduled to take place after the luncheon was cancelled. The next meeting of the Andes Senior Club will be on  April 21. ~