E:\Irish music\A4 Irish history in song 1 & 2.wpd - Ireland in Schools

‘Ireland in Schools’Irish history in song 1 - lyricsCromwell & Ireland01. Young Ned of the HillHunger02. The Famine Song*03. Skibbereen04. The Fields of Athenry* The Praties They Grow Small1916 Ireland & the Western Front05. The Grand Aul’ Dame Britannia06. The Foggy Dew07. Billy McFadzeanConflict in Ireland - perspectives08. The Patriot Game09. Derry’s Walls10. Through the BarricadesProtestant fears of the Roman Catholic Church11. The Old Orange FluteSourcesOutlet Recording Co. Ltd15-21 Gordon Street, Belfast BT1 2LG; tel: 028 9032 2826; fax: 0289033 2671http://www.outlet-music.com; e-mail: mail@outlet-music.comhttp://www.113.dg2.com/orange-pageshttp://www.members.aol.com/drochsceal/rebelsongs.htmlhttp://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/irishc.htmlCommentaries‘Irish history in song 2 - some notes’, IiS note‘Irish Republican Music’http://www.diverseworld.com/ccult/ccult16.html‘Music - a Shared Tradition?’http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war.troubles/music/index.shtml‘Songs of Rebellion’http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/easterrising/songs/index.shtml‘“Young Ned of the Hill” and the Reemergence of the Irish Rapparee: ATextual and Intertextual Analysis’http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~caforum/volume1/vol1_article4.html

Cromwell & Ireland01. Young Ned of the HillThe Pogues Peace & Love, CD, 1989, Island Records, 422-842-2Have you ever walked the lonesome hillsAnd heard the curlews cryOr seen the raven black as nightUpon a windswept skyTo walk the purple heatherAnd hear the westwind cryTo know that’s where the rapparee must dieSince Cromwell pushed us westwardTo live our lowly livesThere’s some of us have deemed to fightFrom Tipperary mountains highNoble men with wills of ironWho are not afraid to dieWho’ll fight with Gaelic honour held on highA curse upon you Oliver CromwellYou who raped our MotherlandI hope you’re rotting down in hellFor the horrors that you sentTo our misfortunate forefathersWhom you robbed of their birthright‘To hell or Connaught’ may you burn in hell tonightOf one such man I’d like to speakA rapparee by name and deedHis family dispossessed and slaughteredThey put a price upon his headHis name is known in song and storyHis deeds are legend stillAnd murdered for blood moneyWas young Ned of the hillYou have robbed our homes and fortunesEven drove us from our landYou tried to break our spiritBut you’ll never understandThe love of dear old IrelandThat will forge an iron willAs long as there are gallant menLike young Ned of the hillIiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 2

Hunger02. The Famine Song (The Praties They Grow Small)The Alias Acoustic Band Irish Songs, Tunes, Poetry and Speech of Rebellion, Resistance & Reconciliation, CD, 1998, Proper/Retro, R2CD 40-73Oh, the praties they grow small over here, over hereOh, the praties they grow small over here, over hereOh, the praties they grow small, and we dig them in the fallAnd we eat them, skin and all, over here, over here, over here.Oh we wish that we were geese, night and morn, night and mornOh we wish that we were geese, night and morn, night and mornOh we wish that we were geese, and could live our lives in peaceTill the hour of our release, eating corn, eating corn, eating corn.Oh, we’re down into the dust, over here, over hereOh, we’re down into the dust, over here, over hereOh, we’re down into the dust, but the Lord in whom we trustWill repay us crumb for crust, over here, over here, over here.COME LAY ME DOWNChorusCome lay me down, and treat me decentCome lay me down, and fill my canCome lay me down love, and treat me decentFor surely you’re an honest man.As I walked out through Galway CityAs I walked out on a pleasant walkAs we were walking, I could hear them talkingOh surely he’s an honest man.The crops are dying, the children cryingThere is widespread hunger all over the landBut when you return, will you treat me decent?For surely you’re an honest man.When I return, I will treat you decentWhen I return, I will fill your canWhen I return, I will bury you decentFor I know that you’re an honest man.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 3

03. Skibbereen One of the areas most affected by the Famine - and the most publicisedThe Alias Acoustic Band Irish Songs, Tunes, Poetry and Speech of Rebellion, Resistance & Reconciliation, CD, 1998, Proper/Retro, R2CD 40-73Oh, Father, dear, I often hear you speak of Erin’s isleHer lofty scenes, her valleys green, her mountains rude and wildThey say it is a lovely land, wherein a prince might dwellOh why did you abandon it, the reason to me tell.My son, I loved my native land with energy and prideTill the blight came over all my crops, my sheep and cattle diedMy rent and taxes were so high, I could not them redeemThat’s the cruel reason I left old Skibbereen.It’s well I do remember the year of ‘98When I arose a Fenian to battle against our fateI was hunted through the mountains as a traitor to the QueenThat’s another reason I left old Skibbereen.It’s well I do remember the cold November dayWhen the landlord and the sheriff came to drive us all awayThey set our roof ablaze in fire with their damning yellow spleenThat’s another reason why I left old Skibbereen.Your mother, too, God rest her soul, fell on the snowy groundShe fainted in her anguish, the desolation roundShe never rose but passed away from life to mortal dreamShe found a grave and place of rest in dear old Skibbereen.You were only two months old, and feeble was your frameI could not leave you with my friends, you bore your father’s nameI wrapped you in my cóótamóór, at the dead of night unseenWe heaved a sigh and bid goodbye to dear old Skibbereen.Oh father, dear, the day will come when on vengeance we will callWhen Irishmen both stout and stern will rally one and allI’ll be the man to lead the van, beneath the flag of greenAnd loud and high we’ll raise the cry, ‘Revenge for Skibbereen’.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 4

04. The Fields of AthenryPatrick Sarsfield Celtic Supporters Club (recording of modern lyrics)www.patricksarsfieldcsc.comModern lyrics by Pete St John, 1979By a lonely prison wallI heard a young girl calling,‘Michael, they are taking you away.For you stole Travelian’s corn,So the young might see the morn,Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.’ChorusLow lie the fields of AthenryWhere once we watched the small freebirds fly.Our love was on the wing,We had dreams and songs to singIt’s so lonely ‘round the fields of Athenry.By a lonely prison wallI heard a young man calling‘Nothing matters, Mary, when you’re freeAgainst the famine and the crown,I rebelled, they ran me down,Now you must raise our children with dignity.’ChorusBy a lonely harbour wall,She watched the last star fallingAs the prison ship sailed out across the skyBut she’ll watch and hope and pray,For her love in Botany BayIt’s so lonely ‘round the fields of Athenry.It’s so lonely ‘round the fields of Athenry.As originally published in 1888By a lonely prison wallI heard a sweet voice calling,‘Danny, they have taken you away.For you stole Travelian’s corn,That your babes might see the morn,Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.’ChorusFair lie the fields of AthenryWhere once we watched the small freebirds fly.Our love grew with the spring,We had dreams and songs to singAs we wandered through the fields of Athenry.By a lonely prison wallI heard a young man calling‘Nothing matters, Jenny, when you’re freeAgainst the famine and the crown,I rebelled, they ran me down,Now you must raise our children without me.’ChorusOn the windswept harbour wall,She watched the last star risingAs the prison ship sailed out across the skyBut she’ll watch and hope and pray,For her love in Botany BayWhilst she is lonely in the fields of Athenry.Whilst she is lonely in the fields of Athenry.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 5

1916 Ireland & the Western Front05. The Grand Aul’ Dame Britannia World War I anti-enlistment song, written by Sean O’Casey in 1916The Alias Acoustic Band Irish Songs, Tunes, Poetry and Speech of Rebellion, Resistance & Reconciliation, CD, 1998, Proper/Retro, R2CD 40-73Ah, what is all the fuss about,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia,Is it us you’re trying to live without,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.Oh, don’t believe those Sinn Fein lies,For every Gael for England dies,Will enjoy ‘Home Rule’ ’neath the Irish skies,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.O Redmond has the battle won,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.He has finished what Wolfe Tone begun,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.Though Shinners through the country stalk,Here’s sixty-seven and Bachelors Walk,Did you ever hear such foolish talk,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.You’ll want to knock a pound off me,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.For Hibernian’s Academy,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.But first I’ve got the Hun to quell,And I need your gold for shot and shell,And your artists all can go to hell,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.Scholars, authors, saints and bards,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.Come along and enlist in the Irish Guards,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.Everyman who treads the German beat,Will get a parcel tied up neat,A Home Rule badge and a wind-up sheet,Says the grand aul’ dame Britannia.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 6

06. The Foggy Dew Written in 1919 by a member of the First Dáil moved by the absence of members ‘locked up by the foreigner’No named artistesThe Complete Irish National Anthem, CD, 1998, Derry Records, IRB 1937CDAs down the glen one Easter mornThrough a city fair rode I.There armed lines of marching men,In squadrons did pass me by.No pipe did hum, no battle drum,Did sound out its loud tattoo.But the angelus bell o’er the Liffey’s swell,Rang out through the foggy dew.Right proudly high over Dublin townThey flung out the flag of war.’Twas far better to die ’neath an Irish sky,Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.And from the plains of royal Meath,Brave men came hurrying through,While Britannia’s Huns with their long-range guns,Sailed into the foggy dew.But the night fell black and the rifle’s crack,Made perfidious Albion reel.Through that leaden hail seven tongues of flame,Did shine o’er the lines of steel.By each shining blade a prayer was said,That to Ireland her sons would be true,And when morning broke, still the green flag shook out,Its folds in the foggy dew.It was England bade our Wild Geese go,That small nations might be free.But their lonely graves are by Suvla’s wavesOn the fringe of the great North Sea.Oh, had they died by Pearse’s sideOr had fought along with brave Cathal Brugha,Their names we would keep where the Fenians sleep,’Neath the shroud of the foggy dew.But the bravest fell and the requiem knell,Rang out mournfully and clear,For those who died that EastertideIn the springtime of the year.While the world did gaze with deep amaze,At those fearless men and few,Who bore the fight that freedom’s light,Might shine through the foggy dew.As back through the glen I rode again,And my heart with grief was sore.For I parted then with those gallant men,I ever will see no more,And to and fro in my dreams I go,And I’ll kneel and I’ll say a prayer for you,For slavery fled, oh you gallant dead,When you fell in the foggy dew.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 7

07. Billy McFadzean A twenty-year-old Belfast man was awarded the VC posthumously for heroism on the first day of the Battle of the SommeAnonymous from Orange Jukebox - ‘Lest We Forget’www.113.dg2.com/orange-pagesLet me tell you a story of honour and gloryOf a young Belfast soldier Billy McFadzean by nameFor King and for Country Young Billy died bravelyAnd won the VC on the fields of the Somme.ChorusGone like the snowflakes that melts in the riverGone like the first rays of days early dawnLike the foam from the fountainLike the mist of the mountainYoung Billy McFadzean’s dear life has gone.Now Billy lies only where the red Flanders poppyIn the wildest profusion paints the field of the braveNo piper recalling his deeds all forgottenFor Bill McFadzean has no known grave.ChorusGone like the snowflakes that melts in the riverGone like the first rays of days early dawnLike the foam from the fountainLike the mist of the mountainYoung Billy McFadzean’s dear life has gone.So let us remember that brave Ulster soldierThe VC he won the young life he gaveFor duty demanding his courage outstandingPrivate Billy McFadzean of the U.V.F.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 8

Conflict in Ireland - perspectives08. The Patriot GameThe Alias Acoustic Band Irish Songs, Tunes, Poetry and Speech of Rebellion, Resistance & Reconciliation, CD, 1998, Proper/Retro, R2CD 40-73Come all ye young rebels, and list while I singFor the love of one’s country is a terrible thingIt banishes fear with the speed of a flameAnd it makes us all part of the patriot game.My name is O’Hanlon, and I’ve just turned sixteenMy home is in Monaghan, and where I was weanedI learned all my life cruel England’s to blameSo now I am part of the patriot game.It’s nearly two years since I wandered awayWith the local battalion of the bold IRAI learned of our heroes, and wanted the sameTo play my own part of the patriot game.This island of ours has too long been half freeSix counties lie under John Bull’s tyrannySo I gave up my boyhood to drill and to trainAnd that made me a part of the Patriot game.They told me how Connolly was shot in his chairHis wounds from the fighting all bloody and bareHis fine body twisted, all battered and lameThey soon made me part of the patriot game.But now as I lie here, my body all holesI think of those traitors who bargained in soulsAnd I wish that my rifle had given the sameTo those Quislings who sold out the patriot game.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 9

09. Derry’s WallsSam Carson No Surrender, CD, 1995, CDUCD 3The time has scarce gone by boys, two hundred years ago,When Rebels on old Derry’s Walls their faces dare not show;When James and all his rebel band came up to Bishops Gate;With heart and hand and sword and shield we caused them to retreat;ChorusThen work and don’t surrender but come when duty calls,With heart and hand, and sword and shield - we’ll guard old Derry’s Walls.The blood it did flow in the streams for many a winter’s night,They knew the Lord was on their side, to help them in the fight;They only stood upon the walls determined for to fight,To fight and gain the victory and hoist the Crimson high.ChorusThen work and don’t surrender but come when duty calls,With heart and hand, and sword and shield - we’ll guard old Derry’s Walls.At last, at last with one broadside the heavens sent their maze,The boom was broke that crosses Foyle’s shores and James he was dismayed;The Banner, boys that floated, was run aloft with joy,God bless the hands that broke the boom and saved Apprentice Boys.ChorusThen work and don’t surrender but come when duty calls,With heart and hand, and sword and shield - we’ll guard old Derry’s Walls.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 10

10. Through the Barricades Inspired by the spectacle of physical as well as mental barriers during a visit to Northern Ireland in the 1980sSpandau Ballet Gold. The Best of Spandau Ballet, CD, 2000, EMI, LC0 0542Mother doesn’t know where love has gone,She says it must be youth that keeps us feeling strong.See it in her face that’s turned to ice,And when she smiles she shows the lines of sacrifice.And now I know what they’re saying as our sun begins to fade,And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades.Father made my history,He fought for what he thought would set us somehow free.They taught me what to say in school,I learned it off by heart but now that’s torn in two.And now I know what they’re saying in the music of the parade,And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades.Born on different sides of life,But we feel the same and feel all of this strife,So come to me when I’m asleep and we’ll cross the line and dance upon the streets.And now I know what they’re saying as the drums begin to fade,And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades.Oh, turn around and I’ll be there,Well there’s a scar right through my heart but I’ll bare it again.Oh, I thought we were the human race but we were just another borderline case,And the stars reach down and tell us that there’s always one escape.Oh, I don’t know where love has gone,And in this troubled land desperation keeps us strong.Friday’s child is full of soul,With nothing left to lose there’s everything to go.And now I know what they’re saying,It’s a terrible beauty we’ve made,So we make our love on wasteland and through the barricades.And now I know what they’re saying as our hearts go to their graves,And we made our love on wasteland and through the barricades.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 11

Protestant fears of the Roman Catholic Church11. The Old Orange Flute The words vary a little between versionsSam Carson No Surrender, CD, 1995, CDUCD 3In the county Tyrone, in the town of DungannonWhere many a ruckus meself had a hand inBob Williamson lived there, a weaver by tradeAnd all of us thought him a stout Orange blade.On the twelfth of July as it yearly did comeBob played on the flute to the sound of the drumYou can talk of your fiddles, your harp or your luteBut there's nothing could sound like the Old Orange Flute.But the treacherous scoundrel, he took us all inFor he married a Papist named Bridget McGinnTurned Papish himself and forsook the Old CauseThat gave us our freedom, religion and laws.And the boys in the county made such a stir on itThey forced Bob to flee to the province of Connaught;Took with him his wife and his fixins, to boot,And along with the rest went the Old Orange Flute.Each Sunday at mass, to atone for past deeds,Bob said Paters and Aves and counted his beadsTill one Sunday morn, at the priest's own requireBob went for to play with the flutes in the choir.He went for to play with the flutes in the massBut the instrument quivered and cried. ‘O Alas!’And blow as he would, though he made a great noise,The flute would play only ‘The Protestant Boys’.Bob jumped up and huffed, and was all in a flutter.He pitched the old flute in the best holy water;He thought that this charm would bring some other sound,When he tried it again, it played ‘Croppies Lie Down!’And for all he would finger and twiddle and blowFor to play Papish music, the flute would not go;‘Kick the Pope’ to ‘Boyne Water’ was all it would soundNot one Papish bleat in it could e’er be found.At a council of priests that was held the next dayThey decided to banish the Old Flute away;They couldn't knock heresy out of its headSo they bought Bob another to play in its stead.And the Old Flute was doomed, and its fate was pathetic'Twas fastened and burnt at the stake as heretic.As the flames rose around it, you could hear a strange noise'Twas the Old Flute still a-whistlin’ ‘The Protestant Boys’.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 12

‘Ireland in Schools’Irish history in song 2 - some notes1. Street ballads as historical evidence2. Irish history in song 1: songs of hunger3. A case study - from home rule to independence4. A modern polemic? ‘Young Ned of the Hill’ by the PoguesIiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 13

Street ballads as historical evidencebased on Songs of Irish rebellion. Irish political street ballads and rebel songsG.D. Zimmerman, Four Courts Press, 2 nd ed. 2002 (first published 1966), 1-85182-629-7, pp 9-13Survival of political songs in IrelandIn most European countries, songs were inspired by political events, but few of them, if any, were retainedby tradition.Sometimes, however, particularly when a fight for independence had been a long and hard one coincidingwith a strong current of folk singing, a certain number of such songs or ballads survived. Ireland is oneof the countries where patriotic and political songs have been for a long time peculiarly popular, andperhaps influential.History and sociological documents - reflecting popular feelingsSuch songs gave utterance to the opinions and feelings of an important part of the Irish people inpolitical, social, and religious matters. They reflect two main trends:1. the struggle of the peasantry to take possession of the land; and2. the nationalist yearnings of the middle class, often intermingled with the efforts to obtain emancipation fromthe religious disabilities imposed on the majority.The habit of writing and singing such political songs in English developed in the cities in the eighteenthcentury, and later on in the countryside, when the English language began to replace Irish among thepeasantry. A number of these so-called rebel songs are still popular to-day.As with ballad makers throughout history, Irish ballad makers often relied heavily on sarcasm, the onlyweapon the oppressed had against the powerful. This was well illustrated in Irish anti-enlistment andanti-conscription ballads during World War I which specialised in lampooning politicians and authorityfigures who encouraged Irishmen to fight in ‘foreign wars’.PurposesThese songs, which were within the reach of the virtually illiterate, were not only1. an expression of the singers’ and listeners’ feelings or opinions but also2. a form of propaganda.‘Curious melting pot’When printers became interested in them, they became almost an industry. Their heterogeneous characteris evident: part literature, part folklore, they belong mostly to that less respected mass of printed materialof a journalistic type which was sold on the streets. They have borrowed elements from every side,sometimes reproducing them with strange alterations.1. Traditional folk patterns intermingle with forms and themes adapted from upper-class culture.2. Other features arose from the function that the street ballad had to fulfil, namely to exploit the popular tastefor stories and for sensationalism in appealing to basic emotions, in a simple text which was shouted on thepublic square.3. These ballads are also composite in that they are related both to the Gaelic Irish and the English folk orpopular traditions.They are thus a curious melting pot for different kinds of literature or subliterature.Common characteristicsThe popular political songs of Ireland can nevertheless be considered as a whole. With all their diversity,they share common characteristic features. Though they depended on current events for their subjectmatter,they show an ever-recurring body of themes and motifs and a fairly complex system of symbols.1. Stock situations are usually phrased in the same words.2. As for their heroes, even when they are named and stand for real people they tend to conform to types.Precision of date, place and other circumstance does not hide the fact that they are less individuals of fleshand blood than conventional characters.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 14

The concept of ‘rebel song’ was vigorous enough for the Irish, but never clearly formulated; the audience,and the police too, could identify the genre in spite of all its formal and thematical variations.Historical significanceWhile the political street ballads had some influence on the attitude of the Irish people, and therefore onthe course of Irish history, we cannot say precisely to what extent.1. They were effect and cause at the same time: expressing strong collective emotions, they could profoundlyaffect the climate of opinion.2. They were effective in shaping a common memory of some events and in binding the Irish together.Promoting action, confirming attitudesIn every period before an expected rising, nationalist movements published violent songs which must havehelped to raise the public to a high pitch of excitement and to prepare the minds for coming disturbances.Through them the desire was born in some young men to conform to the popular idea of a national heroand perhaps to die a martyr’s death. More than in initiating action, however, they seem to have beeneffective in confirming people in their own already existing attitudes; they excited deeply only those whowere already convinced.Substitute for actionIt must be noted that the vogue of political songs might also have had a negative influence: it wassometimes denounced as an easy way to pose as a patriot and to pay lip service to the cause. On 19thFebruary 1848, for instance, John Mitchel’s revolutionary newspaper The United Irishman complained thattoo much energy had been wasted in songs. On 15th October 1881, the newspaper of the Land League,United Ireland, had to remind its readers that ‘singing songs is by no means the highest kind of service toIreland’. The famous Fenian O’Donovan Rossa, himself an occasional poet, observed that songs were asubstitute for action.Evidence of popular attitudesThese street ballads were a nearly collective expression of commonly held beliefs or prejudices and ofpopular aspirations, and we may regard them as a running commentary on Irish political life seen ‘frombelow’.Historical events are converted into two-dimensional pictures, foreshortened and distorted by partisanspirit; but the very point of view is in itself interesting. The anonymous authors knew instinctively that,to be successful, a text had to be as close as possible to what was commonly accepted and expected. Theballads are therefore one of the few means at our disposal to know the popular mind in a period duringwhich the body of the nation was profoundly transformed.On 14th January 1843, the editor of The Nation rightly noted: ‘We receive at least twenty songs every week,full of bitter complaints of the fallen condition of our country, or hopes of her speedy resurrection. Everyone of these we reckon of more value, as an evidence of the condition of the popular mind, than a dozenspeeches or a score of petitions.’The texts I have studied reflect the passage from a time when the Gaelic, Catholic country people playedvirtually no part in the political life of Ireland to the moment when their great-grandsons were in materialpossession of the land, and within reach of national independence.Disconcerting traitsThe simplest texts preserve original and often disconcerting traits. The ballads seem to have becomeimbued with a national character by passing through so many minds. We observe1. a strange blending of inconsistency and fixed ideas, of conservatism and of the will to protest;2. a disposition to anger or derision, but also to sentimentality;3. an admiration for riotous rakes and a taste for good fights, which barely conceals an all-pervading sadness;4. an alternation of verbosity and taciturnity;5. deep religious convictions among every creed, but often with more faith than charity; and6. an obsession with failure, and an apparent acceptance of misfortune, together with an irrepressible beliefthat the nation would rise again some day and regain the place it was supposed to have held in a formerage of glory.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 15

There is little political realism in most of these songs, but the sweet mixture of haziness and magiccommonly attributed to Irish poetry is hardly to be found either.Artistic merit - againstStreet ballads, of a political nature or otherwise, have been ignored or dismissed as unworthy ofconsideration by most literary critics. Scholars who study folk songs often despise the more modernbroadsides, or hold them responsible for a decay of oral tradition and a perversion of popular taste.To present the bulk of these texts as poetry would indeed be ludicrous. Their form is usually clumsy inthe extreme, and what is not trivial is all too often incongruous. Elements borrowed from folklore or fromlearned literature are likely to be more or less debased. The poorness of these street ballads is in itselfsignificant; it shows to what the Irish people, kept in misery and deprived of their own culture, werereduced in the greater part of the last century. There is something pathetic in the descriptions given bysome travellers of the ragged crowds who swarmed around the street singers and followed them step bystep, eagerly listening to their wretched songs.Artistic merit - forIt is usually admitted that these texts deserve to receive serious consideration as historical or sociologicaldocuments; but have they no other merit?The really unassuming songs have at least virtues of spontaneity and straightforwardness, not easily tobe found at a more intellectual level. They may have the primitive charm of naive painting. Folksimplicity is attractive, as in ‘The Croppy Boy’ for instance, and it can have nobility, as in some stanzasof the ballads on ‘Michael Boylan’, and ‘General Munroe’.When the authors have not been misled by the tendency to imitate sophisticated literature, theiruntutored attempts to put into words their thoughts and feelings, awkward as they appear, are originaland eloquent. Even in a dull and trite piece a few lines can show a vivid image and a fine vigour. And inmany cases the emotional power of the words is greatly enhanced by beautiful melodies.The methods of literary criticism are hardly applicable to such texts, and subtle aesthetic appreciationwould be lost on them. The authors of the best ballads had limited ambitions. Their songs were writtenfor immediate use, not for posterity, and they strived to please virtually unlettered people, not fastidiousamateurs of fine literature. Yet some of them have lived on vigorously among the people; almost a quarterof the texts reproduced in this book are still heard to-day, though often in a different version. For a largepart of the Irish audience, much of their content is perhaps not too clear now, but their impact may stillbe great....Importance of contextWe must remember that, poor as these ballads may seem on paper, a number of them assume unexpecteddimensions when sung by a genuine Irish singer in the right surroundings. A song is more than a text anda melody which can be recorded or printed, examined and criticized. It is the result of a communal stateof mind and it depends on the conjunction of an inspired singer, a receptive audience, and variouscircumstances creating a favourable mood. In Ireland, however, some of these elements seem to defyanalysis.Additional note - folk songs v. political balladsA comparison with the songs circulated as broadsides and sung in the streets in various European countries would probably show that the Irishtexts, on the whole, are not inferior to the others. In some cases they might be notably better, since they are closer to oral tradition, but no suchevaluation is possible until research in the field of European broadside balladry has been carried further. In most countries, folk songs properare better known, but they are not exactly the same thing.Still, a fact which emerges from this study is that the Irish political ballads are not altogether alien to traditional literature, however recent theirorigin and relatively brief their existence. Even when their authorship is untraceable, they were made by individuals, but this must have beenthe case with folk songs too, and they survived on the condition that they had been moulded on an impersonal tradition. Though they were oftenpropagated in printed form they were not always static: they could also be committed to memory or handed down by word of mouth andreshaped by each singer, either to his own taste, or, perhaps unconsciously, to a communal taste expressed through a set of formulae and motifs.There is an interrelationship between oral tradition and popular printed literature, as well as between popular and learned cultures.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 16

Irish history in song 1: songs of hungerAnswers to queries about the selection02. The Famine Song(The Praties They Grow Small)The Alias Acoustic BandIrish Songs, Tunes, Poetry and Speech of Rebellion,Resistance & Reconciliation, CD, 1998, Proper/Retro,R2CD 40-7303. SkibbereenOne of the areas most affected by the Famine - andthe most publicisedThe Alias Acoustic BandIrish Songs, Tunes, Poetry and Speech of Rebellion,Resistance & Reconciliation, CD, 1998, Proper/Retro,R2CD 40-7304. The Fields of AthenryPatrick Sarsfield Celtic SupportersClub (recording of modern lyrics)www.patricksarsfieldcsc.comThe three songs about famine and hunger in Ireland were chosen because they are widely available in a range ofrecording styles. The suggested recordings reflect some of these varied arrangements which evoke differentatmospheres and moods.PublicationAlthough about the Great Famine, the songs were not written at the time of the Famine but later in the nineteenthcentury or early twentieth century. For instance, ‘The Famine Song’ (‘Oh, the praties they are small’) used to bequoted in anthologies as a song of the famine period. In fact, the air was learnt in South America and ‘does notsound Irish’, while words were written by A.P. Graves and first printed in 1897. ‘Skibbereen’ was written after theFamine, but there seems no agreement on the exact date. ‘The Fields of Athenry’ was first published in the 1880swith a very simple tune, very different from the modern hit recording by Paddy Reilly (words by Pete St John, 1979).Their value in history teachingFirst, the songs and the music provide excellent stimulus material. The Alias Acoustic Band’s arrangements of ‘TheFamine Song’ is particularly effective in evoking a darkly tragic and threatening atmosphere.Secondly, the songs underline the enduring mark the Famine left on Irish folk memory and the way in which theFamine was used by Irish nationalists to condemn British rule in Ireland, citing it as a spectacularly conclusivedemonstration of the failure of the Act of Union of 1800 to provide fair and responsible government.Political songs, such as ‘Skibbereen’, accused the British government of having conspired to destroy the Irish nation.The relation of tragic scenes was linked with a denunciation of oppression and calls for vengeance, as in the laststanza of the Alias Acoustic Band recording:Oh father, dear, the day will come when on vengeance we will callWhen Irishmen both stout and stern will rally one and allI’ll be the man to lead the van, beneath the flag of greenAnd loud and high we’ll raise the cry, ‘Revenge for Skibbereen’.In 1913, at the height of the crisis over the Third Home Rule Bill, Sinn Féin reprinted a broadside - ‘New song onSkibbereen where thousands patiently lay down and died for want of food’.A different contemporary messageSuch lines appear in songs circulated some time after the disaster. By contrast, contemporary ballads (see overleaf)tried to sustain hope in a better future in Ireland or America (A and B) or protested only against badly managedrelief (C).Recordings of these contemporary songs do not seem to be available.Main sourceSongs of Irish Rebellion. Irish Political Street Ballads and Rebel Songs, 1780-1900 by G.D. Zimmermann, Four CourtsPress, 1-85282-629-7 (first published 1966, reprinted 2002).IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 17

1. A New Song on the Rotten Potatoes (1847)You landlords of Ireland I’d have you beware,And of your poor tenants I’d wish you’d take care;For want of potatoes in the present yearFrom the crutch to the cradle [they] are - trembling with fear.See how starvation meets us in the face,But relief is expected from each foreign place.Come, sell all your cattle and don’t keep a tailBefore that you part with your corn or meal.Through Ireland the potatoes do rot in the field,If you were to see them it would make your heart bleed;If they don’t get relief, then the poor must prevailAnd fight till they die for their corn and meal.Then next try the landlords and see what they’ll do,For they know the potatoes are rotten all through;Tell them for your rent that you’ll give them good bail.Before that you’ll part with your corn or meal.If then to your wishes they will not comply,Then tell them at once that you’d rather to die,For your family is starving for want of the grain,Then why should you part with your corn or meal.There are some of those landlords playing their pranksAnd sending the tenants -to draw on their banks,They’ll have them like foxes all caught by the tail,And then you must part with your corn and meal.Let the Whigs and Repealers all join heart and hand,And likewise the Tories to come on one plan,To boldly come forward and never to fail,And then we will have both our corn and meal.Come cheer up good people, you need never fear,For the rents they must fall upon this present year,Sure they can’t tyrannize or attempt to prevailTo make you to part with either corn or meal.Do not be down-hearted, but cheer up once more,The provision is coming from each foreign shore,Good beer, flour and butter, rich sugar and tea,From Russia and Prussia and Americay.B. A New Song Called the Emigrant’s Farewell to Donegal (c. 1846)Good people on you I call, give ear to those lines you soon shall hear,Caus’d me to weep deprived of sleep for parting from my relations dear;My hardships here I can’t endure, there’s nothing here but slavery,I will take my lot and leave this spot and try the land of liberty.Farewell dear Erin, fare thee well, that once was call’d the Isle of Saints,For here no longer I can dwell, I’m going to cross the stormy sea,For to live here I can’t endure, there’s nothing here but slavery,My hearts oppress’d, I can find no rest, I will try the land of liberty.My father holds five acres of land, it was not enough to support us all,Which banishes me from my native land, to old Ireland dear I bid farewell.My hardships here, I can’t endure, since here no longer I can stayI take my lot and leave this spot and try the land of liberty.My love, you know that trade is low, provisions they’re exceeding high,We see the poor from door to door craving their wants we can’t supply,To hear their moans, their sighs and groans, with children naked cold andbare,Crave, say relief, it renews my grief as we have nothing for to spare.So now my dear you need not fear the dangers of the raging sea,If your mind is bent I am content, so now prepare and come away.She says, my dear if you’ll agree to marry me, I’ll quickly prepare,We’ll join our hands in wedlock’s bands and we will stay no longer here.It was in the year of 46 I was forced to leave my native land,To old Ireland I bid adieu and to my fond relations all,But now I’m in America, no rents or taxes we pay at all,So now I bid a long farewell to my native and old Donegal.C. The Kenmare Committee (1847?)The farmers are taxed every quarterAs a means to keep paupers secure,But doctors, priests, parsons and guardiansHave plundered it all from the poor.There were not such wrongs since the creationAs is practised on each of our tribe.We are dropping with want and starvationAnd those villains elated with pride.The potatoes have failed since -the year forty-five;The labour will flourish and trade will revive.Public works and railroads will commence without fail,And then we can purchase both corn and meal.So now my good people, you need never fear,Old Ireland will prosper on this present year,But instead of potatoes believe what I say,We’ll have a cheap loaf with a good cup of tea.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 18

A case study - from home rule to independencebased on F Harte’s ‘Songs of rebellion’ from ‘Wars & conflict - Easter 1916’www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/easterrising/songs/index.shtmlTowards the end of the nineteenth century, Irish political ballads dealt less with the struggles of the Irishpeasantry over land and concentrated on the struggle for independence. They told anew the story ofIreland’s troubled history with its more powerful neighbour, Britain, and captured and supported thepolitical dreams of new generations who sought an independent nation.The inventiveness and vitality of the tradition of songs of protest are well illustrated in the songs ofrebellion that were sung during the period after 1912, when the introduction of the 1912 Irish HomeRule Bill radicalized politics in Ireland.World War I: opposition to enlistment and conscriptionShortly after the passing of the Home Rule Bill in parliament, Britain became embroiled in the Great Warand Redmond made a political calculation that in time would backfire. He encouraged Irishmen to jointhe British army in the belief that by showing solidarity with Britain, Westminster would not renege onits home rule commitments. Although Redmond received tremendous support not everyone was preparedto back him.Opposition was soon voiced in the many anti-enlistment songs popular at that time. These derided hiscall for the National Volunteers to enlist in the British army and fight in France. ‘The Grand Old DameBritannia’, written in 1916 by Sean O’Casey, is one of many songs which captures the spirit of thatopposition.The Grand Old Dame BritanniaCome all ye scholars saints and bards,Says the grand old dame Britannia.Will ye come and join the Irish Guards,Says the grand old dame Britannia.Oh, don’t believe them Sinn Fein lies,And every Gael that for England dies,Will enjoy ‘Home Rule’ ‘neath the Irish skies,Says the grand old dame Britannia.Now Johnny Redmond you ‘re the one,You went to the front and you fired a gun,Well you should have seen them Germans run,Says the grand old dame Britannia.But if you dare to tread on the German’s feet,You’ll find a package tied up neat,A Home Rule badge and a winding sheet,Says the grand old dame Britannia.Anti-enlistment songs, and later on anti-conscription ones, relied heavily on sarcasm, a device used byballad makers throughout history because it was considered the only weapon the oppressed had againstthe powerful. These ballads specialized in lampooning politicians and authority figures who encouragedIrishmen to fight in foreign wars. The figure of the Recruiting Sergeant has traditionally been a targetfor verbal abuse and during the Great War he provided inspiration for many ballads as in one fromTipperary, ‘The Recruiting Sergeant’.The Recruiting SergeantAs I was going along the road and feeling fine and larky O,A recruiting sergeant trim and neat said you’d look fine in khaki O,The King he is in need of men just read the proclamation O,The life in Flanders would be fine, for you it would be vacation O.That may be true I answered back but tell me Sergeant dearie O,If I had a pack stuck on my back would I look fine and cheery OThe proclamations are alright I have read the last of French’s O,Well it might be hot in Flanders but its draughty in the trenches O.The recruiting sergeant fare no better in Dublin in the equally sarcastic ‘Sergeant William Bailey’. It waswritten by the Dublin ballad maker Peadar Kearney who wrote many popular songs during this turbulentperiod, including the Irish national anthem, ‘Amhrán na bhFiann.Sergeant William BaileySergeant William Bailey was a man of high renown,Tooral looral looral looral loo,In search of gallant young recruits he used to scour the town,Tooral looral looral looral loo,His face was full and swarthy, of medals he had forty,And ribbons on his chest red white and blue,It was he that looked the hero as he made the people stare O,As he stood on Dunphy ‘s corner tooral loo.But alas for human greatness every dog he has his day,Tooral looral looral looral loo,And Sergeant William Bailey he is getting old and grey,Tooral looral looral looral loo,No longer youths are willing to take his dirty shilling,And things for him are looking mighty blue,In spite of fife and drumming no more recruits are coming,For Sergeant William Bailey tooral loo.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 19

Easter RisingPeadar Kearney and another popular ballad writer, Brian O’Higgins (Brian na Banban), continued to usethe cutting edge of sarcasm to great effect. They used some of their songs to mock the police who at thattime were encouraged to learn the Irish language so that they might be able to charge the rebels withmaking seditious speeches. However, when it came to writing about the ‘Easter Rising,’ Peadar Kearneywrote not about a ‘glorious rebellion’ but in an understated, sarcastic Dublin fashion, referred to theRising as a row in the town.The Row in the TownI’ll sing you a song of a row in the town,When the green flag went up and the crown rag came down,‘Twas the neatest and sweetest thing ever you saw,And they played the best game played in Erin go Bragh.God rest gallant Pearse and his comrades who died,Tom Clarke, MacDonagh, MacDermott, McBride,And here’s to Jim Connolly he gave one hurrah,And he placed the machine guns for Erin go Bragh.Big moments in history like the 1916 Rebellion do not always provide inspiration for a great ballad.Patrick Pearse, the iconic leader of 1916 is not celebrated in the popular song tradition, yet the labourleader James Connolly is. Why is there a ballad for Connolly but none for Pearse? Perhaps the mannerof Connolly’s execution - still suffering from his wounds he was shot sitting in a chair - or perhaps his roleas a trade union leader inspired the ballad maker to immortalise him in song.James ConnollyWhere oh where is our James Connolly,Where oh where can that brave man be,He has gone to organise the Union,That working men might yet be free.Where oh where is the citizen army,Where oh where can that brave band be,They have gone to join the great rebellion,And break the bonds of slavery.The inspiration for a ballad is many and varied. Sometimes it can be a great tragedy, an ambush, amurder or just a simple phrase that sets a chord vibrating. A parish priest from Kilcoo in Co. Down,Canon Charles O’Neill, attended the first sitting of the new Dáil, or parliament, in Dublin in 1919. Asthe names of the elected members were called out he was moved by the number of times the names wereanswered by ‘faoi ghlas ag na Gaill’ (locked up by the foreigner). On returning home he wrote one of thefinest songs that recounts the story of the 1916 Rebellion.The Foggy DewAs down the glen one Easter mornThrough a city fair rode I.There armed lines of marching men,In squadrons did pass me by.No pipe did hum, no battle drum,Did sound out its loud tattoo.But the angelus bell o’er the Liffey’s swell,Rang out through the foggy dew.Right proudly high over Dublin townThey flung out the flag of war.‘Twas far better to die ‘neath an Irish sky,Than at Suvla or Sud el Bar.And from the plains of royal Meath,Brave men came hurrying through,While Britannia’s Huns with their long-range guns,Sailed into the foggy dew.War of independencePerhaps the best known and most widely sung of all the songs of Irish resistance is the one whichcommemorates the execution of Kevin Barry in Dublin’s Mountjoy Jail on 1st November 1920. Barrywas an 18 year-old medical student who joined the Irish Volunteers and was sentenced to death byhanging after he was convicted of the killing of a British soldier.The execution received international attention and many appeals for a reprieve were turned down. Thesong was written by an anonymous exile in Glasgow and later was heard by a worldwide audience whenthe great American singer Paul Robeson recorded it.Kevin BarryIn Mountjoy Jail one Monday morning,High upon the gallows tree,Kevin Barry gave his young lifeFor the cause of liberty.Just a lad of eighteen summers,Yet no one can deny,As he walked to death that morningHe proudly held his head on high.Just before he faced the hangman,In his dreary prison cell,British soldiers tortured BarryJust because he would not tellThe names of his brave comrades,And other things they wished to know,‘Turn informer or we’ll kill you!’Kevin Barry answered ‘No!’IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 20

The ballad maker has also recorded the atrocities of the Black and Tans. In many parts of the Republicof Ireland the traveller often comes across small roadside monuments commemorating an ambush or thedeath of a republican volunteer. If you were to investigate further you would probably discover that therewas also a song written to commemorate the same event.In a field in Gortaglanna in County Kerry, there are three crosses bearing the names of Padraic Dalton,Padraic Walsh and Diarmuid Lyons, who were shot by the Black and Tans in the Valley of Knockanure.The song that commemorates their deaths is one of the finest examples of this type of narrative ballad.The Valley of KnockanureYou may sing and speak about Easter week and the heroes of ninety eight.Of Fenian men who roamed the glen in victory or defeat,Of those who died on the scaffold high or outlawed on the moor,But no word was said of our gallant dead in the Valley of Knockanure.There was Padraic Dalton and Padraic Walsh they were known both far and wide,In every house in every town they were always side by side,A Republic bold they did uphold though outlawed on the moor,And side by side they bravely died in the Valley of Knockanure.The Anglo-Irish treaty and civil war‘The Treaty’ which was signed in London on 6 December 1921, established the Irish Free State. Therepublican members of the Dáil opposed it and the resulting Civil War saw old comrades who werepreviously united in their struggle against British rule now bitterly opposed to each other.Many of the songs written during the civil war were written by and for those who fought on therepublican side. They invariably dealt with the atrocities of the Free State troops and the betrayal of therepublican ideal of a thirty-two county Ireland.The song ‘Take It Down From the Mast’ captures the sense of betrayal felt by those who took up armsagainst the new state. It is perhaps surprising that one seldom hears a song in praise of the two mostoutstanding individuals of that time, Michael Collins and Eamon de Valera. Nor does one hear a songin praise of the Irish Free State.Take it Down from the MastTake it down from the mast Irish traitors,The flag we Republicans claim,It can never belong to Free Staters,You brought on it nothing but shame.Then leave it to those who are willing,To uphold it in war and in peace,To those who intend to continue,Until England’s cruel tyranny cease.To listen to the songs and for the full lyrics, go to: www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/easterrising/songs/index.shtmlIiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 21

A modern polemic? Young Ned of the Hill by the PoguesBased on ‘Young Ned of the Hill and the Reemergence of the Irish Rapparee: A Textual and Intertextual Analysis’Ray Cashman, University of Indiana, U.S.A., Cultural Analysis Volume 1, 2000http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~caforum/colume1/vol1_article4.html1. SummaryIn 1989, the Pogues, an eclectic Irish folk/punk/rock band, included ‘Young Ned of the Hill’, a songwritten by Ron Kavana and Pogues member Terry Woods, on their ironically titled album, Peace and Love.The song is somewhat remarkable as a political statement, fiercely condemning Oliver Cromwell and hisruthless seventeenth-century campaign through Ireland.It is really about the conflict in Northern Ireland. It selectively draws upon and re-interprets the folk-loreof Ned of the Hill and Irish musical traditions to lend support and legitimacy to the IRA.Given the song’s juxtaposition of Ned and Cromwell - resistance fighter and English invader - the songprovides commentary on the role of republican paramilitary groups such as the Irish Republican Army (IRA)in contemporary Northern Ireland, a commentary that draws on the aura of tradition for its authority.As an allegory for contemporary political conflict in Northern Ireland, ‘Young Ned of the Hill’ is an attemptto provide that assignment of virtue and blame and to render the world in black and white. If the IRAvolunteer can be equated with the rapparee of folklore, he, too, partakes of the transgressive power and appealof one who can simultaneously be bad and do the right thing by breaking the law. He, too, is a heroic outlawenforcing social justice and invoking laws higher than those legislated at the expense of the oppressed.The song’s tone ‘is also standard fare for this now defunct London-based band of mostly Irish ex-patriots,who cultivated an image of hard-drinking, blue-collar machismo.’2. The textIn this song Ned’s function is to provide a platform for the denunciation of Cromwell and the ills hevisited on Ireland and the Irish and to create an ‘us’ and ‘them’ conflict between the Irish and the English.There are four stanzas and a refrain that appears after the first two stanzas and last two stanzas. The firsttwo stanzas, each of seven lines, can be taken as a unit, as can the last two, each of eight lines.The first stanza establishes the bleak and lonesome existence of the rapparee in ‘lonesome hill’ , while thesecond populates the hills with noble men, the victims of Cromwell, willing to fight with Gaelic honourheld up high. Then comes the vilification of Cromwell in the refrain (‘A curse upon you OliverCromwell/You raped our motherland’) and fourth stanza.Ned is mentioned by name only twice, briefly, and not until the second to last stanza. In fact, only oneof the four stanzas, the third, is entirely devoted to him, whereas Cromwell is introduced in the secondstanza and remains the narrator’s addressee in the refrains and possibly in the fourth stanza. The lyricsprovide meagre information about Ned, although they establish that Ned was prompted to become arapparee as a result of his family being dispossessed and slaughtered. Consequently, the English put aprice upon his head for which he was murdered.The use of an authoritative narrator (‘I’ - possibly one of Ned’s fellow resistance fighters and thus agallant man) creates ‘us’ (lines 8, 9, 10) and ‘them’ groups: Cromwell’s victims described as noble andbrave in their resistance, on the one hand, and oppressors - Cromwell and the English on the other. Thesegroups are in timeless opposition for the narrator indicates that ‘Since Cromwell pushed us westward’(line 8) - from the mid-seventeenth century onwards indefinitely - everyone who resists Englishcolonization is effectively part of the same solidarity.The use of ‘you’ changes from signifying the imagined listener in the line 1 to Cromwell in the refrain(lines 15-18, 20-1, 38-41, 43-4) and probably in stanza four (lines 30, 32-3). The change signals a shiftin attention to the antagonist in the story of Ned’s life. Not only is Cromwell addressed, in the thirdstanza he is cursed with ‘A curse upon you . . . and may you burn in Hell tonight’. The narrator’s curseIiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 22

on Cromwell ironically appropriates and turns on its head a curse directed at the Irish, traditionallyattributed to Cromwell - ‘To Hell or Connaught’, i.e., move westward or die.The [repeated] curse on Cromwell is performative speech. In doing social work, it has illocutionary force -the act of saying the curse accomplishes it, and therefore sends Cromwell’s soul to Hell. Its perlocutionaryforce is persuading the song’s audience of Cromwell’s unparalleled wickedness. The curse also has potentialperlocutionary force in the wider socio-political world outside the song if it compels audience members to defyin some way the dispossession and colonialism that Cromwell stands for in the songs [especially since] in faceto face performance contexts, the refrain is the part in which the audience would feel most free to join in thesinging.The ‘they’ in line 25 and ‘you’ in the fourth stanza could mean the English army - all those murderouspillagers of whom Cromwell is the most infamous example. The song would personify both sides - theIrish as Ned and the English as Cromwell - and characterize only seventeenth-century conflict in rigidbinary terms: Irish/English, good/bad. Yet by leaving the historical period in question open to any time(‘Since Cromwell pushed us westward’, line 8), Kavana and Woods allow them to mean any party thatoppresses us, and those Irishmen at any time since Cromwell who ‘have deemed to fight’ (line 10).3. The ‘aura of tradition’Historical realityKnown in Irish folk-lore as Éamonn an Chnoic or Ned of the Hill, Éamonn Ó Riain (Edmund O’Ryan)really did exist. He was one of many Irish Catholic landholders forcibly dispossessed by English andScottish Protestant settlers in the seventeenth century. Rather than fleeing to the continent, many likeÓ Riain chose to remain in Ireland, hoping to frustrate their supplanters. Living the lives of politicalbandits - harassing British troops, robbing Protestant planters and landlords, and aiding the Irish poor -these men were outlawed and termed rapparees and torie by Crown authorities.Ned was active in Tipperary in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, long after Cromwell’sdeath in 1658. Historically, William III and not Cromwell would have been his antagonist. The choiceof Cromwell as Ned’s nemesis might have been the result of faulty historical research, but it could alsohave been deliberate because of the resonance Cromwell has for Irish audiences as the archetypal antiheroand quintessential evil invader.Folk-loreAfter the historical Ó Riain’s death, ballads, chapbooks, and local legends immortalized him as a RobinHood-like figure. The two extant lyric texts paint a very different picture of Ned from that given in ‘Nedof the Hill’. In the Irish one, ‘Éamonn an Chnoic’, for example, he is seeking shelter from theinhospitable wilderness and bemoans his miserably isolated life as a wanted man.Such men were not concerned with battling against the English. They were concerned with social justiceand traditionally their lonely plight and defeat of them attracted commiseration. It was their humanityand vulnerability which lent rapparee lore a sense of romantic quasi-defeatism.Re-interpreting (distorting?) folk-loreIn the interests of pitting good against evil, the Irish versus the English, the song ‘Young Ned of the Hill’transforms this tradition. Its purpose is vigorously to condemn English oppression. Ned’s defeat solicitsanger and indignation, not commiseration.To emphasise the conflict between nations, ‘Young Ned of the Hill’ deliberately ignores facets of his life.First, although outlawed with a price upon his head (line 25), Ned actually received a pardon. Secondly,although despite the pardon, the price on Ned’s head was his downfall, he was murdered by his own kin -a foster brother or cousin by the name of O’Dwyer. Ignorant of the pardon, the cousin sheltered Ned butonce he was asleep O’Dwyer chopped off his head with an axe. Such destruction is consistent with almostall Irish outlaw legends: the rapparee can only be defeated by foul or unfair means, most often throughbetrayal.This common motif of betrayal by confederates is rather inconvenient for the purposes of ‘Ned of theHill’. While it enhances the rapparees’ quasi-martyr status in Irish folklore, it also prevents any clear-cutdistinctions being made between us and them in rapparee lore.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 23

‘Young Ned of the Hill’, however, is intent on clearly defining the line between the solidarity of Ireland’s gallant men andthe homogeneity of Cromwell’s villainous crew and their successors. Admitting betrayal by the very community Neddefends and supports would problematise the simplistic view of Anglo-Irish conflict offered by Young Ned of the Hill.Other elements of Ned’s story in oral tradition are similarly not referred to for fear of invalidating theeternal conflict posited by the song. A fuller picture of Ned would have meant a more important role inthe song than that of a two-dimensional foil to Cromwell; the nationalistic message of the song wouldnecessarily be subtler, as are the messages embedded in older songs and stories concerned with Ned andother rapparees. The rapparees’ actions portrayed in older folklore did have political implications thatinvite nationalistic interpretations, but explicit antagonism toward a specific English ruler is unique to‘Young Ned of the Hill’.4. Music & structureDrawing on traditionInitially, the instrumentation of ‘Young Ned of the Hill’ identifies the musical style as specifically Irish.The first stanza is given only the sparse accompaniment of tin whistle and accordion, cultivating thelonesome hills imagery of the text. Then in the second stanza the tempo quickens dramatically, and bass,guitar, and bodhrán (percussion) are added, complementing the introduction in the text of those noblemen willing to fight with Gaelic honour held on high.Departing from traditionOnce the lonesome hills have been populated in stanza two with these as yet unnamed rapparees, backupvocals join in the refrain, which pounds on in a frenetic pace to the third stanza. This orchestration andintensity is maintained until the end. Thus, given the management of tempo and instrumentation, thesong follows a gradual crescendo toward the third stanza, in which Ned is finally mentioned by name,then maintains a sort of high plateau through the fourth stanza and final refrain.With its four stanzas and a refrain, the structure of the song is not a traditional Irish lyric form.5. Conceiving a present, appealing to a pastThe transforming of ‘Young Ned of the Hill’ into a resistance fighter is part of a wider process of reconceivingIreland as a cultural unity and as a nation with the right to independence in train since thelate nineteenth century and emphasised by the renewed violence in Northern Ireland in the late 1960s.Ned is not the only rapparee text to be re-interpreted. The re-interpretation of traditional texts, includingrapparee stories and songs, have a role to play in granting the IRA and other republican groups thelegitimacy of being part of a longer, heroic tradition to armed resistance to English colonisation.6. CautionThis summary does not do justice to the subtlety of Professor Cashman’s scholarship and the way headdresses ‘the central issues of context and contextualisation, text and entextualisation’. Only a readingof the full text can do that.IiS, Irish history in song 1 & 2, page 24

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