I must confess that I’ve never been all that excited about specifically Irish Christmas songs, but I am a little bit curious about them. Bing Crosby’s was the first one that I heard. It was on a Christmas record that we had when I was a child. Then I remember being intrigued by The Pogues’ Fairytale of New York at Christmas 1986. It sounded weird, but it kinda grew on me.
We’d probably think of “Christmas in Killarney” as “stage Irish”, the version of Irish presented to Americans. Fairytale of New York was about Irish emigrants. You won’t find anything about Jesus in it. Sadly, it’s altogether typical of so many Irish people at Christmas. It is quite impressive though and seen by many as a classic.
But if you dig deep enough, you will find some nice Irish Christmas songs, or non-Irish songs sung in Gaelic (the Irish language that we all attempt to learn). I must try again sometime 😀.
And here’s a comedy Christmas song from 1983 by Frank Kelly, later to play Father Jack in the Irish comedy series “Father Ted”. It was funny at the time. He even got on Top of the Pops and it made the UK charts 😀.
And finally, an Irish evangelical group, Rend Collective covering Bing Crosby’s Christmas in Killarney and singing about the Saviour:
Hibernia Gospel 