The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54887   Message #857813
Posted By: Big Tim
03-Jan-03 - 12:54 PM
Thread Name: The world's favorite song - A Nation Once Again
Subject: RE: The world's favorite song - A Nation Once Again
I'm sure the BBC use of the tune is quite innocent, probably adopted before 1969, now so well established that they have decided to stick with it. As an Irish Catholic, I certainly take no offense at the use of the tune, which has a very interesting and very long history, the tune dating from 1540 and the words from 1687, depending on which scholar you believe. "Lillibulero", or "Lilliburlero" as it is more usually spelt, is indeed a derogatory anti-Catholic parody but it has to be seen in its historical context, The Williamite Wars. Anyway, the republicans also use a version of it as a slogan "tiochfaidh ar la" - "our day will come"!

CB: the 9 Antrim Glens are:

Glentaisie, Glenshesk, Glendun, Glencorp, Glenaan, Glenballyeamon,Glenarriff, Glencloy and Glenarm. Its beautiful country.

You might enjoy this book "A Dictionary of Ulster Place Names" by Patrick McKay. Institute of Irish Studies, Queens University, Belfast, 1999.

And, "Irish Place Names" by Deirdrie and Laurence Flanagan, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin, 1994.

The closest I could get, after only a very quick look I must admit, to "Tolvan" is "Tolvin", a townland in County Tyrone.