The Corrigan Brothers, an Irish band from Limerick, has honored Hot Springs’ World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade by putting the event in their latest Irish recording.
They say they did it to thank Hot Springs for making their earlier hit song — “There’s No One as Irish as Barack Obama” — the official theme song of the 2009 parade, held two months after Obama was inaugurated as president.
The First Ever Eighth Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade (www.shorteststpats.com) will be held March 17 on Bridge Street.
The band’s new release, “Saint Patrick’s Day (Everybody’s Irish),” celebrates the World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade with the lines: “And out in Hot Springs, Arkansas, they always have a ball/ When they host the world’s shortest Patrick’s Day [sic] parade of all.”
“The reputation of our little parade continues to spread around the planet,” said Steve Arrison, CEO of the Hot Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau and one of the parade’s founders in 2004. “The Corrigan Brothers have given Hot Springs a wonderful St. Paddy’s Day gift by adding us to their latest song about the holiday, and we are really thankful to them for helping us let the rest of the world know about this excellent event.”
Lead singer Gerard Corrigan said, “We were honored to have ‘There’s No One as Irish as Barack Obama’ chosen as the theme song for the Hot Springs, Arkansas, parade in 2009 and this is our way of saying thank you.”
The Irish brothers are hopeful that the new Saint Patrick’s Day song will be a hit.
The lyrics say, in part:
In Austin and in Boston/
Fifth Avenue New York/
In Beijing and Helsinki/
From Belfast down to Cork/
The Emerald Isle is out in style/
And it’s fair enough to say/
Oh everbody’s Irish/
On Saint Patricks Day
. . .
Theres Murphys out in Moscow and in O-hi-o/
O’Neills out in Osaka and in Tokyo/
There’s Kellys out in Kenway and Clancys in Norway/
The 40 shades of green are everywhere on Patrick’s Day/
Parades out in Australia in China and in Spain/
And teams of Irish dancers step it out again/
And out in Hot Springs, Arkanasas, they always have a ball
When they host the World’s Shortest Patrick’s Day parade of all
. . .
The band’s online website says:
“Born in the rich pastures of North Tipperary and living in Limerick, The Corrigan Brothers were forced to sing for visiting relations from an early age. They did, however, receive enough therapy to continue a musical career through adulthood.
“Multi-instrumentalists Gerard, Brian and Donncha Corrigan came to prominence with a rap song in the Irish language called “Cupla Focal (A Few Words).”
They have appeared on TV all over the world with their “Barack Obama”song and have been featured in documentaries and performed the song on election night in Moneygall County, officially the ancestral home of Barack Obama.
For more information on the March 17 parade call Steve Arrison or Leysa Lowery at 501-321-2027 or visit the parade’s official website, www.shorteststpats.com