'Danny Boy' Ban Sparks Emerald Ire

March 11, 2008 — -- It began with the muttering of a cranky New York City pub boss named Clancy, and might have died there, the way so many offhand comments deep inside dark taverns do.

It was just a whine, really. But that whine has grown into a rant heard round the world.

After 18 years behind a bar, Manhattan pub manager Shaun Clancy had decided he'd had enough of "Danny Boy," the maudlin Irish evergreen that has haunted the hearts and ears of Irish bar owners for nearly a century. What's more, the lyrics are constantly butchered by boozy patrons, he insisted.

Clancy banned the song from his tavern for the month of March.

Since banning "Danny Boy,'' Clancy has been profiled in 70 newspapers around the world, from The China Post to the Derry Journal, as well as The Associated Press and dozens of television and radio stations.

He's done 60 interviews for news outlets in six countries. And he's taken more than one crank phone call from angry or simply bored citizens who laughingly -- or bitterly -- burst into the song as soon as he picks up the phone.

Widely decried among well-traveled publicans, the song has become to many the "Sweet Caroline" of Irish ballads -- a once epic weeper that's been bastardized by overuse into a gin-soaked, sing-along parody of itself.

Or at least Clancy thinks so.

Particularly, he said, on Tuesday karaoke nights at Foley's, Clancy's midtown Manhattan pub.

"Everybody thinks -- whatever race, creed or color -- that after three pints of Guinness, you're entitled to get up there and butcher the song."

"The Irish are not known for being a depressed group of people,'' Clancy said. "For the song associated with them to be 'Danny Boy' -- that's kind of akin to the Yankees winning the World Series and the fans breaking out into 'Ave Maria.'''

Clancy insists he's not trying to be disrespectful of the song, which is well-loved by many and has become a staple at the funerals of American police officers and firefighters.