Persephone, Queen of the Underworld (and Christmas)
Of Descending Goddesses, Axe-wielding Bishops and the Pomegranate
It’s Christmas after all, why not be cheerful? Not that mermaids and serpents aren’t (I refer to previous blogs) but the latter haven’t earned a reputation for cheer, and have been blamed for a whole pile of things. But anyway, is Christmas even that cheerful? It tends to rattle the hell out of a lot of people, especially those with oddly-shaped families, estranged families, non-families… those who live on the edge, uncertain of where they belong. Those who haven’t a home. And Scrooges. Barrages of flashing lights, tinsel and turkeys cowering on farms waiting for the chop and the pluck, the relentless drone of ‘Faery Tale in New York’ and that song about the chap in the trenches with the trumpets parping away that can follow you anywhere…(Jona Lewie’s Stop the Cavalry brilliant anti-war song that hit the charts in the 1980s, but it’s been played to death), and the boring-ness of George Michael’s ‘Last Christmas’… it’s part of the reason I stay away from shops around this time of year. When I hear those battered choonz over the air, I want to run for the hills (and the trees). Long ago when there was healthy seasonal political satire, before Hate Speech Laws were even a twinkle in the eye of Irish polticians, there were tunes like this that appeared to mock the likes of Fianna Fáil…indeed, Frank Kelly’s (you know him as Father Ted) 10” single ‘Lannigan’s Ball’, was played on our Record Deck by the Christmas tree in 1980…
To Read on…coming soon to a Substack near you..
Artwork by Jakki Moore