Galway Bay

Galway Bay (Dr. Arthur Colohan)
If you ever go across the sea to Ireland,
Then maybe at the closing of your day,
You will sit and watch the moon rise over Claddagh,
And see the sun go down on Galway Bay.

Just to hear again the ripple of the trout stream,
The women in the meadow making hay.
Just to sit beside a turf fire in the cabin,
And watch the barefoot gosoons at their play.

For the breezes blowin' o'er the sea from Ireland
Are perfumed by the heather as they blow
And the women in the uplands diggin' praties
Speak a language that the strangers do not know.

Yet the stangers came and tried to teach us their way.
They scorned us just for bein' what we are.
But they might as well go chasing after moon beams,
Or light a penny candle from a star.

And if there's is going to be a life hereafter,
And somehow I am sure there's going to be,
I will ask my God to let me make my heaven,
In that dear land across the Irish sea.

The Boys of Wexford

The Battle of Vinegar Hill: 21 June 1798
By Professor Thomas Bartlett; BBC.co.uk)

With the rebels scattered in the north, attention shifted once again to those still 'out' in Wexford, and the army laid plans to attack their camp at Vinegar Hill. On 21st June, General Gerard Lake attempted to surround Vinegar Hill with some 20,000 men, in four columns of soldiers, in order to prevent a rebel breakout. Battle was joined. It lasted about two hours: the rebels were mercilessly shelled, and artillery carried the day. 'The rebels made a tolerable good fight of it' wrote Lake, and then pronounced the 'carnage ... dreadful' among them; hundreds of men may have fallen on the field of battle, though numbers managed to escape. Although a 'little war' continued in the Wicklow mountains for some time afterwards, in effect, after Vinegar Hill, the rebellion in the south-east was over.

In defeat, rebel discipline collapsed in some places. After the defeat at New Ross, about 100 loyalists had been killed at a barn in Scullabogue; and now, following the disaster at Vinegar Hill, about 70 Protestant prisoners were piked to death on the bridge at Wexford town. The army repaid these atrocities with interest: the mopping-up operations after Vinegar Hill resembled, to the fury of the newly-appointed Lord Lieutenant, Marquis Cornwallis, little other than universal rape, plunder and murder.

Retribution for the rebel leaders was swift and largely uncompromising. Bagenal Harvey, Cornelius Grogan, Mathew Keogh, and Anthony Perry - all Wexford commanders (and, incidentally, all Protestants) - were executed; their heads were cut off and stuck on spikes outside the courthouse in Wexford town. Father John Murphy, the hero of Oulart and Enniscorthy (or a latter-day mixture of Attila, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane, as loyalists viewed him), was captured in Tullow, County Carlow. He was stripped, flogged, hanged, and beheaded: his corpse was burned in a barrel. With an eye for detail, the local Yeomanry spiked his head on a building directly opposite the local Catholic church, and with great glee, they forced the Catholics of Tullow to open their windows to admit the 'holy smoke' from his funeral pyre.

For a brief period in late August, there appeared a prospect that the rebellion would flare up again. On 22nd August, a French force of some 1,100 men, under the command of General Humbert, waded ashore at Kilcummin Strand, near Killala, County Mayo. Humbert scored a striking victory at Castlebar, but then his campaign ran out of steam. It soon became clear that the apparent signal victory at Castlebar was an empty triumph. On 8th September at Ballinamuck, County Longford, the French force, vastly outnumbered, laid down its arms. The French were treated as honoured prisoners of war, but those Irish auxiliaries who had recklessly joined them were promptly massacred. The rebellion was finally over: between 10,000 and 25,000 rebels (including a high proportion of non-combatants), and around 600 soldiers had been slain, and large areas of the country had been effectively laid waste.



The Boys of Wexford (By R.D. Joyce)
In comes the captain's daughter, the captain of the Yeos,
Saying, "Brave United man, we'll ne'er again be foes.
A thousand pounds I'll give you, and fly from home with thee
And dress myself in man's attire, and fight for liberty!"

Chorus:
We are the boys of Wexford, who fought with heart and hand
To burst in twain the galling chain, and free our native land!

"I want no gold, my maiden fair, to fly from home with thee;
Your shining eyes will be my prize - more dear then gold to me.
I want no gold to nerve my arm to do a true man's part
To free my land I'd gladly give the red drops from my heart."

Chorus

And when we left our cabins, boys, we left with right good will,
To see our friends and neighbours that were at Vinegar Hill!
A young man from our ranks, a cannon he let go;
He slapt it into Lord Mountjoy - a tyrant he laid low!

Chorus

We bravely fought and conquered at Ross, and Wexford town;
And, if we failed to keep them, 'twas drink that brought us down.
We had no drink beside us on Tubberneering's day,
Depending on the long bright pike, and well it worked its way!

Chorus

They came into the country our blood to waste and spill;
But let them weep for Wexford, and think of Oulart Hill!
'Twas drink that still betrayed us - of them we had no fear;
For every man could do his part like Forth and Shelmalier!

Chorus

My curse upon all drinking! It made our hearts full sore:
For bravery won each battle, but drink lost ever more.
And if, for want of leaders, we lost at Vinegar Hill,
We're ready for another fight, and love our country still!

Chorus

Grace

Joseph Plunkett was a poet, nationalist, journalist and leader of the Irish movement for independence in 1916, known as "The Easter Rising." He played a key role in the planning of the Rising, which was put down quickly by British forces in Dublin. He struggled all of his young life with health issues, as he was stricken with tuberculosis as a child. Just before the Easter Rising, he had surgery to remove the glands in his neck, and it was only with great effort and struggle that he was able to bring himself to be present for the Rising.

While the Easter Rising was a colossal military failure, it is recognized as the starting point of Irish Independence, and the executions that followed brought outrage throughout Ireland, Britain, and even the United States.

Plunkett was engaged to marry Grace Gifford. While imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol in western Dublin, Plunkett and Gifford were allowed to wed in the prison chapel. Hours later, Plunkett was taken to the courtyard outside and executed by firing squad.



Grace
As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Jail
I think about these past few weeks, oh will they say we've failed
From our school days they have told us we must yearn for liberty
Yet all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me.

Chorus:
Oh Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They'll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I'll place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye.

Now I know it's hard for you my love to ever understand
The love I bear for these brave men, my love for this dear land
But when Padraig called me to his side down in the GPO
I had to leave my own sick bed, to him I had to go

Chorus

Now as dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too,
On this May morn as I walk out my thoughts well be of you
And I'll write some words upon the wall so everyone will know
I love so much that I could see His blood upon the rose.

Four Green Fields

This song is a simple allegory reflecting on the Irish struggle throughout the centuries of British occupation. The "proud old woman" is the geographic island of Ireland, the "four green fields" are the four states of Ireland (Ulster, Munster, Leinster, Connacht), the old woman's "sons" are the soldiers who fought for the independence of Ireland, and her "children" are all the citizens of Ireland.

It is sung by the legendary Tommy Makem, who recently passed away.



Four Green Fields
What did I have, said the fine old woman
What did I have, this proud old woman did say
I had four green fields, each one was a jewel
But strangers came and tried to take them from me
I had fine strong sons, who fought to save my jewels
They fought and they died, and that was my grief said she

Long time ago, said the fine old woman
Long time ago, this proud old woman did say
There was war and death, plundering and pillage
My children starved, by mountain, valley and sea
And their wailing cries, they shook the very heavens
My four green fields ran red with their blood, said she

What have I now, said the fine old woman
What have I now, this proud old woman did say
I have four green fields, one of them's in bondage
In stranger's hands, that tried to take it from me
But my sons had sons, as brave as were their fathers
My fourth green field will bloom once again said she

You Stand Accused of Murder

I'm on the theme of the Hunger Strike, so I'm going to go with it. As stated in my post for Back Home in Derry, Irish prisoners in HM Prison Maze staged a Hunger Strike in 1981 demanding political prisoner status from the British government, then headed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The British government had previously revoked the "Special Category Status" for paramilitary prisoners in 1976, instead treating them as general prisoners. The prisoners retaliated with a Hunger Strike. In total, ten men died during the strike before it was called off.

The Hunger Strikers' demands were five-fold:
1) The right not to wear a prison uniform
2) The right not to do prison work
3) The right of free association with other prisoners, and to organise educational and recreational pursuits
4) The right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week
5) Full restoration of remission lost through the protest

Several tribute songs have been written for the men who died during the Hunger Strike. Below is Andy Craig's, "You Stand Accused of Murder," a poignant indictment of Prime Minister Thatcher.



You Stand Accused of Murder
The mists of time will honour this, the year of ‘81
When ten brave gallant Irishmen, a hunger-strike begun,
You might as well have shot them like the men of Easter week,
You knew they wouldn’t bend their knee, you knew they wouldn’t break

Chorus:
You stand accused of murder their blood is on your hands,
Of Francis Hughes, Ray McCreesh, Joe McDonnell, Bobby Sands,
Martin Hurson, Kevin Lynch, Thomas McElwee,
Mickey Divine, Patsy O’Hara and Keiron Doherty.

Time will never sanctify the reasons why,
In prison cells, in lonely hells our hunger-strikers died
Show me an English man who’d starve until he died,
But Irishmen have done it with honour and with pride.

Chorus

800 years is far too long the time has come to leave,
You’ve butchered and you’ve plundered, you’ve murdered and deceived,
But we promise we will never give up our human rights
To defend the men of ’81 in their final lonely fight.

Chorus

Back Home in Derry

"Back Home in Derry" was originally penned as a poem by Bobby Sands. Sands was the leader of the 1981 Hunger Strikers who died in HM Prison Maze ("Long Kesh") in Kilburn, Northern Ireland. He was imprisoned for the possession of firearms. Sands and the other Hunger Strike prisoners were seeking status as political prisoners, and he and the others went on a hunger strike until that status was recognized. While in prison, Sands was elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. After 66 days of starvation, Sands died. Nine other Hunger Strikers followed suit.

The song itself depicts the way in which many criminals in Ireland were handled by the British in the nineteenth century. Botany Bay -- located in Sydney, Australia -- was a British prison colony for Irish criminals. As depicted in Sands' poem, there were significant hardships on the long trip from the UK to Australia, and many prisoners did not survive the journey. Those that did faced the brutal southern Australia climate.

Bobby Sands' poem was adapted to the music of Gordon Lightfoot's, "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."



Back Home in Derry
In 1803 we sailed out to sea
Out from the sweet town of Derry
For Australia bound if we didn't all drown
And the marks of our fetters we carried.

In the rusty iron chains we sighed for our wains
As our good wives we left in sorrow.
As the mainsails unfurled our curses we hurled
On the English and thoughts of tomorrow.

Chorus:
Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.
Oh I wish I was back home in Derry.

I cursed them to hell as our bow fought the swell.
Our ship danced like a moth in the firelights.
White horses rode high as the devil passed by
Taking souls to Hades by twilight.

Five weeks out to sea we were now forty-three
Our comrades we buried each morning.
In our own slime we were lost in a time.
Endless night without dawning.

Chorus

Van Dieman's land is a hell for a man
To live out his life in slavery.
When the climate is raw and the gun makes the law.
Neither wind nor rain cares for bravery.

Twenty years have gone by and I've ended me bond
And comrades' ghosts are behind me.
A rebel I came and I'll die the same.
On the cold winds of night you will find me

Chorus

Danny Boy

It would be hard to make a website about Irish music without including this piece. Admittedly, this song is more popular among Irish-Americans than those living in Ireland, but it is nonetheless one of the most famous and popular Irish songs.

The meaning of this song is somewhat disputed, but it is often interpreted as a message of a parent to a child leaving home to head off to war. The song lyrics were written by Frederick Weatherly, an English lawyer who never set foot in Ireland, in 1910. His lyrics were set to the Irish song, "Londonderry Air" in 1913. Despite that no one knows for sure what Mr. Weatherly was writing about when he penned these now-famous lyrics, the ballad has become synonymous with Ireland.



Danny Boy
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying
'Tis you, 'tis you must go and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
'Tis I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, I love you so.

And if you come, when all the flowers are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
You'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me
And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be
If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me
I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me.