Glocca Morra may accidentally be an actual place in real life, but it is   
   intended to be a fictional place in and for the musical Finian’s Rainbow.   
   Even in the play, Glocca Morra is only “sort of” a real place, where   
   Finian and Sharon McLonergan    
   hail from back in Ireland. Or is it that they hail tosuch a place?    
       
   My take on it is that Glocca Morra is more of an idea, or a longing really.   
   For Sharon it’s like Dorthy clicking her ruby heals and wishing,   
   “There’s no place like home.” For Finian, it’s the elusive pot of gold   
   and all the accompanying notions    
   of wealth that he hopes to find at the end of a rainbow. Actually, in his   
   case, he has already has the pot of gold which he ‘borrowed’ from a   
   leprechaun, but he intends to plant it at the rainbow’s end (like Jack’s   
   magic beans) and grow himself a    
   magical fortune.   
       
   Glocca Morra the desired greener grass on the other side of the fence. It’s   
   the carrot strung on a stick in front of a mule that the mule always pursues   
   but never tastes. It is a driving hunger that is never satisfied. For some it   
   is a place. For    
   others it’s a status. For some it is insatiable curiosity. For others it’s   
   fame. Or greater wealth. Or total freedom. For adrenaline junkies it is the   
   search for the ultimate rush. For illicit substance junkies it is shooting for   
   the ultimate high.    
   Oddly, the closer you gets to this sort of goal, the further it get’s from   
   you.   
       
   In the play, Sharon quotes an old legend (thought up by her father Finian).   
   She tells Woody (her soon to be romantic interest):   
       
   “…in Glocca Morra where we come from, there’s an old legend. And it says:   
   You’ll never grow old And you’ll never grow poor,    
   If you look to the rainbow Beyond the next moor.”   
       
   At the end of the play Sharon is asked, “Where is Glocca Mora?” She   
   answers,    
   “Well, you see,    
   it’s always somewhere…over there.”   
       
   For Finian, Glocca Morra seems always to be beyond the next moor; always   
   ‘over there’; always just out of reach. For Sharon, Glocca Morra seems   
   always to be the nostalgic sense of ‘back there’; a homesick memory of a   
   ghost that can never return    
   to this world. Even if she were able to return to that place, the place would   
   have changed, moved on, and not be what it was in her memories. Sadly, she   
   would find, “The willow was cut down.” So even the willow from the past is   
   a will-o’- wisp    
   always out of reach; an ignis fatuus leading people to a sad  end.   
       
   In the musical, “Paint Your Wagon” the song, “I Was Born Under a   
   Wandering Star,”  indicates that for For Ben Rumson, Glocca Morra would be   
   the act of leaving and saying “good-bye” and heading out to see what’s   
   around the next bend.    
       
   In the movie “Around the Bend” Glocca Morra would be a road trip which   
   becomes a metaphor for, and the means to discover, the desired sense of family.   
       
   In the song “If I Stand” Rich Mullins has a line “And if I weep let it   
   be as a man who is longing for his home.” His lyrics indicate that he has   
   already reached his home, at least by faith, if not yet by sight. But his   
   longing for Glocca Morra    
   will be over on the day he dies and will see it face to face.   
       
   Glocca Morra is actually Finian’s Rainbow. Glocca Morra is  like a rainbow   
   who’s end is an optical illusion who’s end can never be reached because if   
   forever recedes as you approach. Seeking Glocca Morra and Finian’s   
   rainbow’s end are like Don    
   Quixote in Man of La Mancha standing over his armor and answering Dulcinea’s   
   question about what he means by “following the quest” and singing, “The   
   Impossible Dream (The Quest).”   
       
   To dream the impossible dream   
   To fight the unbeatable foe   
   To bear with unbearable sorrow   
   To run where the brave dare not go   
      
   To right the unrightable wrong   
   To love pure and chaste from afar   
   To try when your arms are too weary   
   To reach the unreachable star   
      
   This is my quest to follow that star   
   No matter how hopeless, no matter how far   
   To fight for the right without question or pause   
   To be willing to march into Hell for a heavenly cause   
      
   And I know if I'll only be true to this glorious quest   
   That my heart will lie peaceful and calm when I'm laid to my rest   
      
   And the world will be better for this   
   That one man, scorned and covered with scars   
   Still strove with his last ounce of courage   
   To reach the unreachable star   
       
   In the closing scene of Finian’s Rainbow, Finian leaves Rainbow Valley in   
   search for his rainbow.    
       
   "I've an elegant legacy  Waiting for ye   
   'Tis a rhyme for your lip  And a song for your heart    
   To sing it whenever  The world falls apart   
       
   Look, look  Look to the rainbow   
   Follow it over  The hill and stream    
   Look, look  Look to the rainbow    
   Follow the fellow  Who follows a dream    
       
   'Twas a sumptuous gift  To bequeath to a child   
   For the lure of that song  Keeps me head runnin’ wild   
   'Tis a rhyme for me lip  And a song for me heart    
   And I sing it whenever  The world falls apart   
       
   Look, look  Look to the rainbow    
   Follow it over  The hill and stream    
   Look, look  Look to the rainbow    
   Follow the fellow  Who follows a dream    
       
   So I bundled me heart  And I roamed the world free     
   To the East with the light  To the West with the sea    
   And I searched all the earth  And I scanned all the skies    
   But I found it at last  In my own true love's eyes    
       
   Look, look  Look to the rainbow    
   Follow it over  The hill and stream    
   Look, look  Look to the rainbow     
   Follow the fellow  Who follows a dream   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)