The Auld Triangle

The Auld Triangle (German "The old triangle") is a ballad that the Irish writer and songwriter Dominic Behan wrote forhis brother Brendan Behan 's play The Quare Fellow, which premiered in 1954. It is also known under the alternative title The Banks of the Royal Canal or The Royal Canal for short.

The song is about the hardships of prison life . Behan drew on his experience as a prisoner in Dublin's Mountjoy Prison ; the title refers to the large, still existing triangle in the center of the prison yard, which was struck every morning to wake the prisoners. In The Quare Fellow , whose plot also takes place in a prison, it forms a kind of thematic prologue to the drama.

Since then it has become part of the standard repertoire of Irish songs and has been interpreted by a large number of musicians, for example by Bob Dylan in 1967 , the best known are probably the versions of The Dubliners and The Pogues . The song became one of their signature songs, especially for the Dubliners . In 1987, for example, Irish television broadcast a tribute program in honor of the band; it was also Ciarán Bourke's last appearance before his death; at the end all musicians involved (including Ronnie Drew and U2 ) sang The Auld Triangle together .

Recordings (selection)

• Ian & Sylvia (as The Royal Canal ), on the album Four Strong Winds (1963)
• Bob Dylan and The Band , only on bootlegs of the Basement Tapes (1967)
• The Pogues , on Red Roses for Me (1984)
• The Dubliners , on several compilations
• Eric Burdon (as The Royal Canal ), on Rare Masters (1996)
• Dropkick Murphys , on The Warrior's Code (2005)
• Cat Power (as Ye Auld Triangle ) on the EP Dark End of the Street (2008)
• Glen Hansard and Damien Dempsey , only as single, (2010)