The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #25381   Message #297027
Posted By: Wolfgang
14-Sep-00 - 06:11 AM
Thread Name: Note add: Wind that shakes the barley
Subject: Note add: Wind that shakes the barley
The wind that shakes the barley is a beautiful song already in the database. Sometimes I like to find out what is behind a song or a name in a song I don't know. I hadn't heard the place name Oulart Hollow before and at first I thought it was an invention of the poet. But I found this bit in a search at a site about the 1798 rebellion in Co. Wexford and think it could be added as an explaining note to the song:

'On the 26th of May the rebellion in Wexford burst into flame. Thousands of peasants had taken to the fields, and became peasant armies. The largest force, led by Father John Murphy of Boulavogue, assembled on a hill at Oulart, ten miles south of Gorey and eight miles from Wexford town. Another rebel group assembled on Kilthomas Hill, nine miles west of Gorey, and was put to flight by three hundred yeomen from the garrison at Carnew, who in pursuit burned about a hundred cabins and farmhouses and two Roman Catholic churches, one of them Father Murphy's at Boulavogue. An attempt to dislodge the rebels on Oulart Hill was a disaster for a detachment of 109 men of the North Cork militia from the garrison at Wexford. Only Colonel Foote, commanding, a sergeant, and three privates returned to Wexford.'

Wolfgang