Desert Storm

An epic album deserves an epic story, and for their 44th record The Chieftains haven’t disappointed. San Patricio tells the tale of a battalion of Irish men who fought on the Mexican side of the Mexican-American war of 1846-1848. What makes their story unique is the fact that this group of several hundred were originally recruited on the American side but switched over. To this day, they are reviled in some quarters of Irish-American folk memory. Paddy Moloney has been intrigued by the story since he first came across it.

“About 25 years ago I was approached by a guy who was doing a masters in Trinity College about the American civil war. He wanted me to do some music for it and during that research I came across this story about the San Patricio brigade.”
Moloney travelled to Mexico to research the matter further.
“I spent about a month there and in the process I came across a lot of great musicians. They have a lovely museum and memorial to the San Patricios in a little place outside Mexico City. Every Sunday a Mexican pipe band play the Irish pipes in their memory. I saw all the Irish names in the memorial and I started making the connection in my head between Mexican and Irish music. There was a big European influence on the music of the time. You can hear polkas and jigs in there.”
To help him bring the music to life, Moloney brought Ry Cooder on board as co-producer. Together they created the tapestry of sounds that make up this sprawling 19-track album.
“He was great to work with and introduced me to Mexican bands like Los Tigres del Norte – The Northern Tigers – who’ve had a number one record in Mexico,” Moloney explains. “He knew Linda Ronstadt and brought her onboard while Liam Neeson did the narration on the song ‘March To Battle’. He even said he wanted to be in the movie of the San Patricios if it’s ever made. When we finished all the recording I brought it back to Dublin to Brian Masterson who always knows what I’m thinking and was great at the final sequencing.”
Moloney feels strongly that this is a story that had to be told: “Most of these men were enlisted soon after arriving in America to escape the Famine. One of the reasons they changed sides is the fact that they didn’t take too kindly to being ordered by mainly Protestant officers to kill fellow Catholics. The injustice of it is that it’s not spoken about much in America. There was a shame attached to the fact that they switched sides and they were seen as deserters and traitors.”
The Chieftains are going strong for over 45 years now. Did Moloney ever envisage that they’d have a career that lasted so long?
“Not at all, but after about 25 good solid Irish albums we started doing our collaborations. It’s great to reach out to other musicians and different styles. I never dreamt I’d get to where I am now. We’ve even been doing some jazz recently. Herbie Hancock came to Dublin and he’s doing an album of sounds from around the world and I put a little bit of Irish music on a jazz version of ‘The Times They Are A Changing’, which I hardly recognised when I heard it played back.
“The one big regret is that we never got to work Johnny Cash,” he concludes. “I almost got him back in 1988 when he was doing a concert in Dublin. He was going to come down to Wicklow to do a collaboration. He rang up and said he couldn’t come down for whatever reason.”