The Auld Triangle

"The Auld Triangle" is a song, which was first performed publicly as a part of the play The Quare Fellow (1954) by Brendan Behan. Brendan credited his friend Dicky Shannon as the writer.^[1] The song was later made famous by Luke Kelly, Ronnie Drew and The Dubliners in the late 1960s, and was revived for a new audience by Irish rock band the Pogues on their 1984 album Red Roses for Me.

Content

The song is used to introduce the play, a story about the occurrences in a prison (in real life Mountjoy Prison where Behan had once been lodged) the day a convict is set to be executed. The triangle in the title refers to the large metal triangle which was beaten daily in Mountjoy Prison to waken the inmates ("The Auld Triangle goes Jingle Jangle"). The triangle still hangs in the prison at the centre where the wings meet on a metal gate. It is no longer used, though the hammer to beat it is mounted beside it. In the original play by Brendan Behan, the song is written as the "old triangle" not "auld triangle".

The triangle was rung regularly to signify points in the prisons routine.

A second level of meaning is hinted at in the final verse in which the singer imagines himself dwelling in the women's prison. Another mourns the separation from ''his girl Sal". These hint at the internal erotic fantasies that prisoners use to separate themselves from the harsh prison environment. In this meaning the old triangle becomes the female pudenda and the Royal Canal the vagina. ^[2]

As with many Irish ballads, the lyrics have been changed with each passing cover. For example, the Dropkick Murphys recording condenses the structure into a three-lyric section song with a chorus based on the last two lines of each stanza in the original.

Chorus

And the auld triangle went jingle-jangle

All along the banks of the Royal Canal

Notable recordings

This song has been recorded by:

• The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem on Ain't It Grand Boys (recorded 1964, released 1995, as "Royal Canal") and The Bold Fenian Men (1969, as "The Old Triangle")
• Liam Clancy as "Royal Canal" on his self-titled 1965 album (reissued with additional tracks in 1999 as Irish Troubadour)
• Ian & Sylvia as "The Royal Canal" for their Four Strong Winds album in 1963
• The Dubliners, on several albums, notably the 1992 album 30 Years A-Greying
• The Pogues on the 1984 album Red Roses for Me
• Dropkick Murphys on the 2005 album The Warrior's Code. Their version was also included on the compilation Vans Off the Wall Volume VII.
• The High Kings on The High Kings (2008)
• Bob Dylan and The Band also recorded a rendition of the song during their Basement Tapes sessions in 1967. This recording is available on bootleg recordings but does not appear on the official The Basement Tapes album released in 1975. It finally appeared in 2014 on the official release, The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete.
• Lifvens Vänner Swedish band recorded this song for their album "Lifvs Levenes", released 1997.
• Bert Jansch for his 2006 album The Black Swan
• Jeff Tweedy on his tour DVD Sunken Treasure: Live in the Pacific Northwest
• The Oysterband for their now-deleted 'Alive and Acoustic' recording
• Glen Hansard, lead singer of The Frames, and Damien Dempsey, to raise funds for the charity Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.^[3]
• Patrick Clifford, on Chance of a Start
• Cat Power for her 2008 EP Dark End of the Street
• Chris Thile, Chris Eldridge, Marcus Mumford, Justin Timberlake and Gabe Witcher for the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers' 2013 film Inside Llewyn Davis^[4]
• The Mahones on their 2014 album The Hunger & The Fight
• Ryan Boldt on his 2014 album Broadside Ballads^[5]

Notable performances

The Doug Anthony Allstars performed a medley (a variation on Fred Geis’s "Lament for Brendan Behan" prefacing "The Auld Triangle") on the Australian ABC program The Big Gig in the late 1980s.^[6]

The Frames performed it as the final song of a two-hour concert at the Vic Theater in Chicago on 23 November 2010. They performed the song live on RTÉ television's The Saturday Night Show on 18 December of the same year. U2 played a live cover version at Croke Park, Dublin on the 24th July 2009 as part of the 360 tour. Bono joined lead singer Glen Hansard on 8 May 2012 in New York City's The Living Room venue to perform the song.^[7]

At the Ceiliuradh (celebration) at Royal Albert Hall on 10 April 2014, it was sung by a collection of performers including Glen Hansard, Lisa Hannigan, Elvis Costello, Conor O’Brien (of Villagers), Paul Brady, Imelda May, John Sheahan, Dónal Lunny, Andy Irvine and The Gloaming.

References

External links

• song search for "The Auld Triangle" at allmusic.com.
• "The Auld Triangle" at MusicBrainz (information and list of recordings)