St. Patrick’s Day 2015: Music, Traditional Songs, Lyrics To Celebrate Irish Culture

St. Patrick’s Day may have begun as a Christian holiday honoring Ireland’s patron saint, but today it is marked around the world as a celebration of Irish culture and history. While green clothing and shamrocks might be the most recognizable aspect of the holiday, traditional Irish music is also a significant part of the celebration.

In honor of the upcoming holiday, here is a list of five traditional Irish songs to get you into the St. Patrick’s Day spirit:

1. Molly Malone (Cockles and Mussels): “In Dublin's fair city, where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone. As she wheeled her wheel-barrow through streets broad and narrow, crying cockles and mussels, alive, alive-O!”

2. The Irish Rover: “On the fourth of July, 1806, we set sail from the sweet cove of Cork. We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks for the Grand City Hall in New York. 'Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore and aft and oh, how the wild wind drove her. She stood several blasts, she had twenty seven masts and they called her The Irish Rover.”

3. Danny Boy: “Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling from glen to glen, and down the mountain side. The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying,'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.”

4. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling: “When Irish eyes are smiling, sure, 'tis like the morn in Spring. In the lilt of Irish laughter you can hear the angels sing. When Irish hearts are happy, all the world seems bright and gay. And when Irish eyes are smiling, sure, they steal your heart away.”

5. Come Out Ye Black and Tans: “Oh, come out you black and tans, come out and fight me like a man, show your wife how you won medals down in Flanders. Tell her how the IRA made you run like hell away, from the green and lovely lanes in Killeshandra."