10 Irish Drinking Songs for St. Patrick's Day

What makes a great Irish drinking song?

Simple: It needs to have a great sing-along chorus that everyone can roar out and the words have to be simple enough in that chorus that even the drunkest party member who's still conscious can remember what they are!

And for St. Patrick's Day, when everyone wants to be Irish for a while, the songs either need to reflect Irish history or culture. It doesn't hurt if many of the songs on the playlist actually have alcohol as the subject, but they don't have to.

With those criteria in mind, here are 10 great songs for your St. Patrick's Day drinking playlist:

1. The Wild Rover
   
2. Whiskey in the Jar
   
3. Old Dun Cow
   
4. 4. Finnigan's Wake
   
5. Beer Beer Beer (Charlie Mopps)
   
6. Johnny Jump Up
   
7. Black Velvet Band
   
8. When Irish Eyes are Smiling
   
9. Lily the Pink
   
10. Danny Boy (Save this one for last when everyone is soppy and sentimental)

You can find some of these songs on Marc Gunn's "Irish Drinking Songs" and more on his "Best Irish Drinking Songs" on iTunes.

For other great versions and "Lily the Pink," you will have great fun with Marc's previous duo, The Brobdingnagian Bards' "The Holy Grail of Irish Drinking Songs."

Gunn also provides the Irish and Celtic Music Podcast and the St. Patrick's Day Podcast with many versions of these songs and hundreds of others by independent Celtic artists.

Marc Gunn lives in Birmingham, Alabama. Find out more about him through his website and the Celtic Music CD Store.