The Iowa Legislature marked today’s holiday with song.
In the Iowa Senate, two legislators collaborated. Senator Joe Seng, a Democrat from Davenport, played the accordion as Senator Merlin Bartz, a Republican from Grafton, sang “Oh, Danny Boy.” (Listen: SenateStPats)
Bartz joked he had “no Irish blood,” but luckily the president of the Senate had made all senators “honorary Irish” today.
“Senator Seng and I would like to give you a rendition of ‘Danny Boy’ to honor the Irish of Iowa, the Irish of the world and the Irish contributions as immigrants to our state and our nation,” Bartz said, offering a bit of a warning about the song’s high notes before he began singing. “And by the way, Senator Seng can only play this song in one key, which presented a little bit of a trouble, but we’ll try it.”
Bartz, by the way, went into falsetto to hit the song’s high notes.
In the Iowa House, former State Representative Dan Boddicker, a Republican from Tipton, was invited back to the statehouse to sing the same song — a cappella — an Italian word which means without accompaniment. Boddicker also delivered the opening prayer in the Iowa House.
“Grant us the willingness to be open to each other, to respect each other, to listen to each other, to be honest with each other and to be supporting of each other,” Boddicker prayed.