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

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