For St. Patrick's Day (written when the original Irish Tenors were still together):



MY IRISH SOUL COUSINS

As I watched and listened to the "Irish Tenors" singing during the Prairie Public Television membership drive this week, with each song I felt a closer kinship to them and the Irish. A long time ago I heard someone say that the Ukrainians are the Irish of the East, and the Irish are the Ukrainians of the West. Much in our histories is common: a fierce love of land, independent spirit, invasion and subjugation, intense struggles for freedom over the centuries, genocides by famine, emigration, exile, foreigners settling the land, invaders' attempts to systematically destroy the language, history and culture, loss of ethnic lands, and ultimate independence. Both our people have that ancient folk heritage, and we all sing, dance, cry, fight and love.

The three Irish Tenors are not as famous, nor as operatically gifted, as "The Three Tenors" (Pavarotti, Domingo and Carerras). The latter are professionals, who live and breathe by their enormously wonderful voices. They sing whatever is on the operatic or concert program, in whatever language, although nothing melts your heart more than Pavarotti singing his Neapolitan songs - you can see on his face that these come from his Italian soul.