The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92482   Message #1768088
Posted By: Tannywheeler
24-Jun-06 - 12:19 PM
Thread Name: Irish Republican ballads - need advice
Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
One from the Clancy Bros. & Tommy Makem, some years back. Started:
1)" 'Twas early, early in the spring;
    The birds did whistle and sweetly sing,
    Changing their notes from tree to tree,
    And the song they sang was "All Ireland Free."
       (Old Ireland free?)

2)" 'Twas early, early in the night.
    The (Allman? Yeoman?) cavalry gave me a fright.
    "    "       "       "    was my downfall,
    And taken was I by Lord Cornwall."

I remember most of the rest--the rebel is taken to places of imprisonment, he passes his "aged father"'s(& aged or tender mother's) door, passes his first cousin on the road(who betrayed him), gets locked in a guardhouse, tried, and sentenced to hang. Called "The Croppy Boy", a nickname for the rebels who kept their hair "cropped", or cut short. Ends:

"It was in Dungannon this young man died,
And in Dungannon his body lies.
Now all good people who do pass by
Just drop a tear for The Croppy Boy."

I didn't remember the title until I thought my way through the last verse. Enjoy. I think Liam sings this one on whichever album it's on. There's quite a turn on the word "tear" in the last line. Tw