The Sligo Referee

[PaulMcC]

Here's a memory of Spider I'd like to share with ye all.

Back in 1989, The Pogues played The Reading Festival. This was preceeded by three dates in Ireland, one in Galway, one in Shinrone, and a third in Cork. I was at the Galway and Cork shows. Shane didn't exactly cover himself with glory at these two shows. To put it mildly, he was 'out to lunch'.

Anyway, the day before the 1st show Spider and some other Pogues were at the All-Ireland Gaelic Football semi-final between Dublin and Cork. I was at the game myself and Dublin, my team, were the victim of some poor refereeing decisions by an official from Sligo. I wasn't at Reading but heard a recording of the show. Just before 'Repeal', Spider broke in to song. To the tune of 'James Connolly' I think, he sang an original composition about the referee of the afore mentioned match. The lyrics were roughly as follows:

You can talk about Iscariot, Hitler, and the Tans,
How Pontius Pilate wiped the blood of Jaysus off his hands,
The SS, the Gestapo, and the bleedin' R.U.C.,
Not one of them's as treacherous as the Sligo Referee.

He did the dirty deed in Dublin City,
The place where all the girls are so pretty,
His crime is as old as history,
So what then was the fee?
Twenty pieces of silver,
Twenty pieces of silver,
Said the Sligo Referee!

At the end of 'Repeal', Shane referred to Spider as 'the Mozart of the blank generation'!

Happy memories indeed!

[BelfastsLittlesHobo]

Haha Excellent!