Tuned into a new radio show last Sunday night on Irish radio station Newstalk 106FM called 'The Snug'. Pleasantly surprised to discover that How Soon Is Now? was the theme tune. Appropriate in all sorts of ways, really. The show's hosted by Roger Green and Ulick O'Connor, two legends of the Irish literary landscape. O'Connor in particular is an interesting figure. He was a contemporary of Brendan Behan, Flann O'Brien, JP Donleavy, Oliver St John Gogarty, Patrick Kavanagh and others. The show's format involves O'Connor expounding on a different subject each week, which of course allows for liberal name-dropping. Anyway, I thought it was most appropriate that How Soon Is Now? should be the theme tune for this show given all of the Smiths' Irish backgrounds, and Morrissey in particular's peculiarly Irish take on the world. Moz's wordplay and impish mindset is of a piece with the greats of the Irish literary pantheon. The Smiths' and Morrissey's Irishness is a huge and unacknowledged side to the band, and to Morrissey's lyrics; the melodies, the words, everything... Listen to some of the great maudlin or jaunty Irish ballads of the past (Danny Boy, On Raglan Road, The Rose of Tralee; The Crack Was Ninety; The Black Velvet Band; Tell Me Ma; My Irish Molly; anything sung by the great John McCormack) read Wilde; read Inishkeen Road by Kavanagh; read Yeats; read Joyce; read Shaw – allow it all to seep in and let it change your whole perception of the Smiths and Morrissey. In many ways the Smiths were much more an Irish band than an English one. Pure-bred English artists tend to be wet, over-earnest and po-faced. The great so-called British bands and artists of the past, the most subversive ones, the ones that really made a difference, that had a sense of humour, were all Irish: Lennon/McCartney; John Lydon; the Buzzcocks; Elvis Costello; the Pogues; Dexy's Midnight Runners; the Happy Mondays; and of course the Smiths. So much more elegant, crafty, witty, ballsy.