# Irish Potato Famine Music? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 2, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145 "2001-05-02T23:27:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2001, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/1 "2001-05-02T23:27:05Z")
I need to (for school) find a website that has a criticism of an Irish musician from around the period of the potato famine. I’ve tried several search engines and can’t find anything. Are there any Ireland enthusiasts who know such a website, or at least could give me a name to look for? ---
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2001, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/2 "2001-05-03T00:14:20Z")
On tonight’s syndicated Simpsons, Homer was railing about Ned in front of a crowd at church when he said, “Now, I’m not a big city lawyer, but…” I am pretty sure that I have heard a character in the Simpsons use this phrase before, but for the life of me I can’t find where it comes from. Can anybody place this phrase or is it something the writers made up. ---
**Author:** ![mongrel\_8](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e274bd/32.png) [@mongrel\_8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mongrel_8)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/3 "2001-05-03T00:27:48Z")
As you might guess my post was supposed to be a new thread. Sorry, Qwertyasdfg, I guess I just bumped it. [slowly shuffles off dejected looking] ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2001, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/4 "2001-05-03T00:44:28Z")
To contune the hijack… “I’m not a big city lawyer” has to be from the 60’s movie Inherit the Wind - Spencer Tracy was the small-time lawyer assigned to defend Bertram Cates against famous politician/lawyer Matthew Harrison Brady. (It was really a veiled reference to the Scopes Monkey Trial). In the movie, Spencer Tracy was always grabbing his suspenders and acting like he was the people’s lawyer, and was always pigeonholing the blowhard, stuffed-shirt arguments from his blue-blood, politician opponent. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2001, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/5 "2001-05-03T05:33:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Qwertyasdfg \* > \*\*I need to (for school) find a website that has a criticism of an Irish musician from around the period of the potato famine. I’ve tried several search engines and can’t find anything. Are there any Ireland enthusiasts who know such a website, or at least could give me a name to look for? \*\* What exactly do you need? Criticism of a musician or of music in general? For whatever it’s worth, here’s some Irish folk lyrics: [http://ingeb.org/folksong.html](http://ingeb.org/folksong.html) (Sorry, can’t get a proper link) ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/6 "2001-05-04T00:27:24Z")
I need criticism of a specific musician from that time period. Thanks for the link. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/7 "2001-05-04T05:22:59Z")
Do you have the name of this musician? That might be a start. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/8 "2001-05-04T13:08:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dooku \* > \*\*To contune the hijack… > > “I’m not a big city lawyer” has to be from the 60’s movie Inherit the Wind - Spencer Tracy was the small-time lawyer assigned to defend Bertram Cates against famous politician/lawyer Matthew Harrison Brady.\*\* Um. Actually Spencer Tracy was portraying the very famous, not to say notorious, Clarence Darrow. [http://md.essortment.com/clarencedarrow\_rjec.htm](http://md.essortment.com/clarencedarrow_rjec.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2001, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/irish-potato-famine-music/64145/9 "2001-05-04T13:13:03Z")
Qwerty, I’m having trouble getting a handle on what kind of information it is you’re looking for. A biography of a specific musician? Are we talking “performer” or “composer”? Musician/composer _in_ Ireland at the time of the potato famine? Or _from_ Ireland, came over on the boat? And what do you mean by “criticism”? Are you writing a report? On what, exactly? Details, we need details…