Dropkick Murphy's: A Political Analysis Of Celtic Music

As midnight struck on January 1, 2000 the world came into a new millennium and the genre of Celtic Punk came into a new age as well. As the millennium kicked off so did a slow down turn of the American Economy and in turn the world economy, which caused high unemployment rates and high prices for essential items. Bands such as Dropkick Murphy’s and Flogging Molly began to make more political statements. Dropkick Murphy’s have multiple political songs such as; “Tomorrow’s Industry”, “We Got the Power” and “Worker’s Song” and Flogging Molly has songs like “Man With No Country” and “Factory Girls” and ‘Drunken Lullabies”. The songs that I have mentioned along with countless others from multiple artist have an underlying political meanings mainly
The political histories of these countries are filled with wars and political and economic unrest stemming from the rule of England or France. The music of these countries reflects on the issues being faced by the lower classes and those being oppressed by the rule of those who do not have the same background and history as them. Labor music focuses on the issues of the worker such as unions and working for less than is deserved or the rights of workers to organize unions and strikes. Protest music has a deeper meaning, many protest songs protest war or the mistreatment of the masses. David Easton’s definition of politics as “the authoritative allocation of scarce resources” is the definition that best goes with the topics I am covering. Both Dropkick Murphy’s and Flogging Molly in the songs that I have picked focus on the lower and middle class being looked over and left with
Flogging Molly’s song “Drunken Lullabies” was written in 2003 following a spike in violence between Northern Ireland and Ireland. The song starts with the lyrics “500 years like gelignite have blown us all to hell” this is directly related to the conflicts happening in Northern Ireland with the Irish Republican Army. The conflict between Northern Ireland and Ireland comes from both the rule of the United Kingdom in Northern Ireland and the differences in religious ideologies of the two countries. Northern Ireland is mostly Protestant where as Ireland is majority Catholic this issue is also bought out in the song in the lyrics “What savior rest while on his cross we die while forgotten freedoms burn has the Sheppard led his lambs astray to the bigot and the gun” these lyrics bring up the problem of religion. In Northern Ireland the Irish Republican Army was carrying out terrorist attacks at the time Flogging Molly wrote and recorded “Drunken Lullabies” the song was a call for the violence to