20 May 2004
As a Kerry person, I have devoted my life to showing compassion to people from Cork. Yes, they live in their own filth and eat their young: we know all that; we don’t need to rehash their many failings. Let’s instead celebrate the positive in Cork. After all, Cork are the second-best Gaelic football team in the whole of Munster. Also, Cork people’s love of the Queen of England visiting their English Market will reassure our northern neighbours that for many years a large Unionist community has already been living in the Republic. And many people have successfully left Cork to become sports stars, indie bands, and light entertainers.
Tim O’Riordan & Natural Gas were the first Cork act in over 30 years to have an Irish number one, if you don’t include Denis Irwin and Roy Keane as members of Ireland’s 1994 World Cup squad. On which point, there are many variations, performances and updates of ‘The Langer’ floating around online, so I haven’t yet found the 2004 version which included a still-slightly-topical (since news of the outside world travels slowly in Cork) verse about Roy and Saipan. I also recall the ur-text of this thing featuring the mighty Seán Ó Sé dropping rhymes as Gaeilge. The radio version may well have left out the disturbing reference to Crosshaven. Otherwise, ‘The Langer’ is a comedy folk ballad showcasing the legendary Cork wit.
For any Cork people visiting Irish Number Ones for the first time, having finally seen something here they know and love, welcome! What traditionally happens at the end of these few lines is that I display the number that the song reached in the charts: it’s just a thing we do here, so I won’t burden you with the logic. I like to think we’ve all reached out across the barricades today, left behind the comfort zone of our raw prejudices, and learned a little bit more about just what it means to be from Cork.
Irish Number Ones 