Stop no. 6

 

McKenna's/The Yanks, Borrisokane.

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Borrisokane was often visited by Shane in his youth, the Lynch uncles travelling here for groceries on a pony and trap, the young Shane an excited passenger.
 

It remained a favourite place to visit and McKenna’s pub (known locally as The Yanks) was frequented by many of his family. It was in the late ‘70s, that Shane first joined in here with a group of local musicians singing a combination of traditional Irish and contemporary songs, and later wrote that it was then he first realised it was possible to fuse both types of music as he would go on to do in The Pogues. He specifically referenced "one minute you would be singing a Simon and Garfunkel song and the next it would be "Rocky Road to Dublin"" Shane later went on to record the latter with the Pogues:

 

Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEe7_b6NHtA

He said later of The Yanks’ sessions: ‘So that was really the original Pogues.’

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