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St. Paddy’s Day in Japan by Michael Moreau, English Department |
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From the ancient sun to the old heart stove come the troubadours An Irishman probably couldn’t get much further from the land of St. Paddy on March 17 than Sasebo, Japan, but that’s where Glendale College’s official Irish troubadour Dennis Doyle found himself this year.
They had to switch from their Korean Airlines flight to a smaller commuter plane, then to a bus—all the while, Doyle carrying his well-packed Irish harp in “a suspicious box the size of a small refrigerator.” When they finally arrived at Sasebo Naval Base, Doyle said, “we were zombies.” But by the time Innisfree played its first gig on St. Patrick’s night, the band was ready and the audience was receptive. And although Guinness was served on tap for the occasion, this wasn’t the drunken brawl one would likely have found at the average Irish pub. It was a subdued, family audience, Doyle says. The gig, which was arranged through an agency that books acts for American bases in Asia, was considered a “family night” program, and along with the traditional ballads about bad behavior, whiskey and women, the band played “The MTA song,” and other novelty numbers that engaged the children in the audience. They also invited the kids to learn to play the pennywhistle and traditional Irish games. “Our kind of gig, is like a clean gig,” Doyle said. “It’s not scary rock. It’s a family night event.” He was pleased to hear the audience sing along to “Dublin’s Fair City,” “Molly Malone” and “Wild Irish Rover.” The bases—they also played at Atsugi Naval Air Station and Yokosuka Naval Base—were like self-contained villages, with shops, social activities, and even Boy Scout troops. Doyle, a scoutmaster himself, was delighted with a gift of a Far East patch given to him from a scoutmaster on base. Perhaps surprisingly, and even though there was a daily edition of Stars and Stripes sold on the bases, Doyle said there was little talk about world events. “I got the sense that people were mostly apolitical,” he says. And to make sure that visiting performers didn’t inject politics into their performances, “Part of our contract was we couldn’t say anything disparaging about the military or the navy.” Innisfree was put up in bachelor officer’s quarters on base, which Doyle describes as “pretty much like a Holiday Inn” with basic furnishings and TVs. They were issued “orders,” paperwork that explained what they were doing on base and that gave them free rein of the facilities including the commissary, stores and restaurants. “We got full breakfasts for under two dollars,” Doyle says. They also had time to explore off base. One day Doyle went into Nagasaki, where he ate at the local McDonald’s (besides Big Macs, “there were a lot of unusual fish dishes”), and visited Urakami Cathedral, which was destroyed by “Fat Man,” the bomb the Americans dropped on the village on August 9, 1945, killing around 8,500 Catholics among 70,000 other residents. A replica of the original cathedral is now on the site. Doyle had played in Japan once before. Seven years ago—pre-McDonald’s and pre-Burger King—he performed at a harp festival, where he was delighted to find Japanese musicians deftly playing Irish tunes on harps like the one he took up 20 years ago when his wife gave him one as a gift. Before he took up the harp, he had played mandolin and keyboards and, in informal house gatherings, had helped form Innisfree, along with English professors Desmond Kilkeary and Steve Taylor. Not surprisingly, the band’s name came from the William Butler Yeats poem “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.” The band has gone through several permutations over 25 years, but Doyle went his own way after taking up the harp, which, he says “doesn’t mix too well with other instruments.” For the tour, he reunited with Innisfree, also bringing along a mandolin to blend in better with the ensemble. In recent years, he has toured solo as a harpist, singer and storyteller, hitting Irish and Celtic festivals and folk festivals around the country. He also has appeared regularly on TV shows, including “Murder She Wrote,” and lends a Gaelic flavor to weddings and other private functions. Which raises the question: Does Doyle, who teaches English and directs the Learning Center on campus, think of himself as a college professor who also plays music? Or a musician who happens to have a day job at a college?
Doyle, now 51, was bitten by the performance bug early in life. He recalls: “When I was 8, I had a gig playing ‘Jingle Bells’ on an organ in the window of a department store on Brand.” And what he found out back then was that “it’s great to hear the applause.” But besides the applause, Doyle, who leads study abroad trips to Ireland every couple of years, is also strongly drawn to his Irish roots. “I love all the Celtic music.” And even though the U.S. Navy paid his expenses and a modest stipend for the trip to Japan, Doyle says, “I’d probably do it for free.” & |
Doyle
and the band, Innisfree, traveled to Japan to entertain the troops on
U.S. Navy bases this St. Patrick’s Day. On March 14 Doyle and his fellow
band members, including his brother Terry, embarked on a grueling
30-hour trip by plane and bus to Sasebo, the naval base near Nagasaki
where they would launch a tour of three bases during the week.
The answer is he
somehow manages to balance both, along with being a father of five and a
scoutmaster (a job he’s ready to hand off to someone with more free time
on his hands).