The "Incredibly Impossible to Derail This Thread" thread | Page 324 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Right lads I need help, my history teacher is being a prick trying to help my brother with his history project on the lads concerts in Ireland. The history teachers refuses to believe it was a historical event  We’ll just ignore the riots, the vandalism and general screaming that the teenagers did then, eh?

To quote the Oxford English Dictionary; history is ‘an eventful past’. Now if that  wasn’t eventful then tell me what is!

Anyhoo, he says that my brother has to write more about the effect of them on Irish culture (I could probably let British culture slip through, though) So far I have:

Fashion- Beatle boots, hairstyle, collar-less suits

Music- More groups creating original music and their music being used in peace marches. Also Paul’s and John’s songs written during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Influence on U2 blah blah

Beatlemania

Their slight promotion of drugs

Publicity for meditation and yoga (their trip to India)

Anything else?? I’m clutching at straws at the moment, if he says that it’s useless, my brother is going to do the first Ed Sullivan shows or something else Beatley related (any ideas? I can do everything except John’s murder)

Zig said 
You could also look into their Irish lineage (all except Richy if memory serves).

I like this suggestion, it was going to be mine – sort of. The effect of the Irish diaspora on Irish culture and politics, with The Beatles, together and apart, showing examples of both. They offered a chance to forget the tensions on the island of Ireland, but at times questioned the role of the British on the island of Ireland. The Beatles are, in their way, an interesting way to jump into making points about the negative and positive effects that the Irish diaspora has had on the history of the island.

For a long time the Irish diaspora were seen as a strength in the struggle, but were increasingly seen as a hindrance by the increasing numbers who were rejecting violence because of their financing of it although they didn’t have to live with its effects (John, in the early ’70s, purportedly one of those financing the IRA).

The pivotal moment probably came the day afer Enniskillen, when during a performance of Sunday Bloody Sunday Bono – in front of an American audience – declared, “Let me tell you something, I’ve had enough of Irish-Americans who haven’t been back to their country in twenty or thirty years, come up to me and talk about the Resistance, the Revolution back home… And the glory of the Revolution , and the glory of dying for the Revolution .
“F**k the Revolution !
“They don’t talk about the glory of killing for the Revolution !
“What’s the glory in taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children? Where’s the glory in that?
“Where’s the glory in bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old-age pensioners, their medals taken out and polished-up for the day? Where’s the glory in that? To leave them dying, or crippled for life, or dead under the rubble of the Revolution that the majority of the people in my country don’t want!”

And most bravely, against all advice, insisted it was included in the Rattle and Hum film. Bono is often derided for his politics, but in those moments he made himself a target, and started undermining the diaspora’s support for the IRA – which would contribute to the path to the peace process.

And it all began with The Beatles, and some Irish kids falling in love with their music, and seeing how their own voices could be heard using that music…

There is an exciting part of the island’s history told there that begins with some Beatles performances in Ireland.

@AppleScruffJunior 

Wow! Kate Bush has announced her first live dates since 1979! 15 performances at London’s Hammersmith Apollo – which, ironically, as the Hammersmith Odeon, was the last venue on her only ever tour.