Lyr Add: The Banna Strand

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BANNA STRAND
From: The Fenian
Date: 29 Jan 98 - 07:53 AM

I heard this song on a rebel songs tape and my father says he thinks it is the Wolfe Tones. They only did three or four verses and the others I got from a songbook and a few others I got from a good friend who plays the song sometimes when we get together for a spree.

THE BANNA STRAND

'Twas on Good Friday morning all in the month of May.
A German ship was signaling beyond out in the bay:
"We have twenty thousand rifles all ready for to land."
But no answering signal did come from the lonely Banna Strand.

"No signal answers from the shore," Sir Roger sadly said.
"No comrades here to welcome me. Alas! They must be dead.
But I must do my duty and at once I mean to land."
So in a small boat pulled ashore on the lonely Banna Strand.

The German ships were lying there with rifles in galore.
Up came a British ship and spoke. No Germans reached the shore.
"You are our empire's enemy so we bid you to stand.
No German foot shall e'er pollute the lonely Banna Strand."

The R.I.C. were searching for Sir Roger high and low .
They found him at McKenna's fort. Says they, "You are our foe."
Says he, "I'm Roger Casement. I have come to my native land,
And I mean to free my countrymen on the lonely Banna Strand."

They took Sir Roger prisoner and sailed for London town,
And in the tower they laid him as a traitor to the crown.
Says he, "I am no traitor," but his trial he had to stand
For bringing German rifles to the lonely Banna Strand.

'Twas in that English prison that they lead him to his death.
"I'm dyin' for my country," he said with his last breath.
They buried him in British soil far from his native land,
And the wild waves said his requiem on the lonely Banna Strand.

They took Sir Roger home again in the year of sixty-five,
And with his comrades of sixteen in peace and tranquil lies.
His last fond wish it was fulfilled, to lie in his native land,
And the waves will roll in peace again on the lonely Banna Strand.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD!: The Banna Strand
From:
Date: 29 Jan 98 - 04:02 PM

What's the tune? Banks of Banna?

Subject: RE: LYR ADD!: The Banna Strand
From: Murray
Date: 30 Jan 98 - 03:29 AM

Tune isn't "The Banks of Banna". I have heard two tunes, one of which is in James N. Healy, Irish Ballads & Songs of the Sea [Cork: Mercier, 1967], page 66 [text, p. 71, but without the last verse, which of course was composed after the translation of Casement's remains].

Subject: RE: LYR ADD!: The Banna Strand
From: Bruce O.
Date: 30 Jan 98 - 02:13 PM

Thanks, Murray

Healy's "Lovely Banna Strand" (D mixolydian) is close to "Van Dieman's Land", in complete Petrie coll'n, #808. [Theme codes help in finding other titles for same tune.] Petrie's tune has accidentals so his tune isn't strictly D minor.

Tune "Van Dieman's Land" in DT is similar if not the same. I don't have a good ear for absolute pitch, and don't know how to covert DT's Songwrite notation to a score.

Subject: Tune Add: LOVELY BANNA STRAND
From: Bruce O.
Date: 30 Jan 98 - 03:48 PM

Here's Healy's tune. After all my work in identifying it, I find the 2nd tune below on the same page, only a slight variant.

X:1
T:LOVELY BANNA STRAND
N:Healy's Irish Ballads and Songs of the Sea
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:D mixolydian
F/2G/2|A2dd2B|c2B AG E|A2ED2 D|(D3D)z A|\
D2EG2A|d2ce2d|c2A BA G|(A3A)z A|D2EG2A|\
d2ce2d|c2A BA G|(A3A)z (F/2G/2)|A2dd2B|\
c2B AG E|G2ED2D|D4|]

X:2
T:Van Dieman's Land
N:Healy's Irish Ballads and Songs of the Sea
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:D dorian
(F/2G/2)|A2dd2B|c2B AGE|(G2E)D2D|(D3D2)D|D2EG2A|\
{A/2}d2ce2 d/2d/2|c2A BAG|(A3A2)G/2E/2|D2EG2A|\
(d2c) e2d|(c2A) BAG|(A3A2) F/2G/2|A2d d>cB|\
c2B A>GE|A2ED2D|(D3D2)|]

---

To play or display ABC tunes, try concertina.net

Subject: RE: LYR ADD!: The Banna Strand
From: Jon W.
Date: 30 Jan 98 - 07:20 PM

Bruce, you can use the MIDI2ABC program, available for download at the ABC homepage, to convert tunes from the DT to ABC. For the online DT, press shift and click on "Click Here To Play" and it will save it as a MIDI file, which you run through MIDI2ABC. I think I've used it to convert tunes from the downloaded DT also by extracting them from TUNES.ZIP using WinZip, but I don't remember the details.

Subject: ? about Banna Strand
From: Jon
Date: 08 Mar 98 - 10:32 AM

Does anyone know the history behind/about the tune Banna Strand. I love it dearly and would like to know more.

Thanks,

Jon

Subject: RE: ? about Banna Strand
From: Bruce O.
Date: 08 Mar 98 - 11:40 AM

That was on a thread several days (maybe about 2 weeks) ago. Look for 'Star of the County Down'

Subject: RE: ? about Banna Strand
From: Bruce O.
Date: 08 Mar 98 - 12:38 PM

There were two threads on 'Banna Strand' that lead into 'The Star of the County Down' one.

Subject: RE: ? about Banna Strand
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 08 Mar 98 - 04:07 PM

Come back here if its the history of the incident, rather than that of the tune, you're looking for.

Regards

Subject: RE: ? about Banna Strand
From: Jon
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 12:37 AM

Actually I am very interested in the history of the incident too, thanks!

Jon

Subject: RE: ? about Banna Strand
From: O'Boyle
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 02:31 AM

On the friday night prior to Easter 1916, Sir Roger Casement, an English born Irish patriot attempted to land at Banna strand on the southwest coast of Ireland with a load of german rifles. The IRB had been working on a deal for the rifles and had arranged for the landing a few days prior to the uprising. There was a mix up on the dates and no one was there to meet the ship.The ship carrying the rifles, the Aud, I believe, was captured and brought into Cobh (Queenstown). The german captain sank the boat rather than having it brought into the harbor. At roughly the same time casement was put to shore from a submarine to go see what the hang up was. He obviously had no idea about the ship being captured. Casement was captured by the local police, (he lied about his name, unlike what the song says.) He was executed and buried in England. In 1965, his body was returned to Ireland and buried with honors. There is a last verse to the song about his return that is not usually included in most versions. I'll check the data base and see if it there. If it isn't I'll print it here.

Tiocfaidh ar la,

Rick

Subject: Lyr/Chords Add: BANNA STRAND
From: Rick O'Boyle
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 03:10 AM

Here the lyrics and chords to the whole song, including the not oft heard last verse.

C...................................Em.........................F...............C
'Twas on Good Friday morning all in the month of May
Bb.............................C7................F......................C
A German ship was signaling beyond out in the bay
........Bb.......................C7.............F.................C
With twenty thousand rifles all ready for to land
...........F............................Em...........................F.......................C
But no answering signal did come from the lonely Banna Strand.

C...................................Em.........................F...............C
''No signal answers from the shore'' Sir Roger sadly said
Bb.............................C7................F......................C
''No comrades here to meet me, alas they must be dead
........Bb.......................C7.............F.................C
But I must do my duty and at once I mean to land''
...........F......................Em...........................F.......................C
So in a small boat rowed ashore to the lonely Banna Strand.

C...................................Em.........................F...............C
Now the R.I.C. were hunting for Sir Roger high and low
Bb.............................C7................F......................C
They found him in McKenna's fort, said they ''you are our foe''
........Bb.......................C7.............F.................C
Said he, ''I'm Roger Casement, I've come to my native land
...........F............................Em...........................F.......................C
And I mean to free my countrymen on the lonely Banna Strand.''

C...................................Em.........................F...............C
They took Sir Roger prisoner and sailed for London Town
Bb.............................C7................F......................C
And in the Tower they laid him, a traitor to the Crown
........Bb.......................C7.............F.................C
Said he, ''I am no traitor,'' but his trial he had to stand
...........F..................Em...........................F.......................C
For bringing German rifles to the lonely Banna Strand.

C...................................Em.........................F...............C
'Twas in an English prison that they led him to his death
Bb.............................C7................F......................C
''I'm dying for my country'' he said with his last breath
........Bb.......................C7.............F.................C
They buried him in British soil, far from his native land
...........F........................Em...........................F.......................C
And the wild waves sang his requiem on the lonely Banna Strand.

Well they brought Sir Roger home again in the year of '65
And with his comrades of '16 in peace and tranquil lies
His last fond wish has been fulfilled to lie in his native land
And the wild waves roll in peace again on that lonely Banna Strand.

Spaces converted to periods to approximate your chord alignment. Still it won't be quite right. I don't know why, but the alignment is slightly different in my browser than in my word processor. In general, it's better to use Courier font when setting up, and then HTML preformat commands when you paste into the thread. --JoeClone, 5-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: ? about Banna Strand
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 06:28 AM

Rick

Historical account is fair enough - pity about the PIRA sloganising. Over-simplifying complex problems is a bit ironic in the context of Casement!

I think it is now believed ( J de Courcy Ireland)that the ship was not in fact the Aud - but one disguised to look like her, for reasons which escape me.

Regards

Subject: RE: ? about Banna Strand
From: The Fenian
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 09:31 AM

The last verse to the Banna Strand goes like this
They took Sir Roger home again in the year of sixty five
And with his comarades of sixteen in peace and tranquil lies
His last fond wish it was fulfilled to lie in his native land
And the waves will roll in peace agian, on the lonely Banna Strand.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Banna Strand
From: The Fenian
Date: 10 Mar 98 - 09:36 AM

There is a verse missing between the second and third that goeslike this,

Now the German ships were lying there with rifles in galore
Up came a British ship and spoke no Germans reached the shore
"You are our empires enemy, so we bid you to stand
No German foot shall ere pollute, the lonely Banna Strand.

Subject: Lyr Add: BANNA STRAND
From: Teru
Date: 28 Mar 98 - 09:00 AM

As far as I know, there are two more verses.

One is like below and comes between the first and the second verses.

A motor car was dashing through the early morning gloom.
A sudden crash and in the stream they went to meet their doom.
Two Irish lads lay dying there just like their hopes so grand.
They could not give the signal now from lonely Banna Strand.

And another one comes somewhere after the third verse. The lyrics are:

They sailed for Queenstown Harbour. Said the Germans, "We're undone;
The British are our masters, man for man and gun for gun.
We've twenty thousand rifles here, but they never will reach land.
We'll sink them all and bid farewell to lonely Banna Strand."

Regards

Teru

HTML line breaks added in place of double spacing. --JoeClone, 5-Jul-02.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banna Strand
From: smpc
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:52 PM

i have always sang this song with the introductory line being
'twas on good friday all on an april day' as easter is more likely to be in april than may?

i also sing an extra verse as the second
'a motor car was dashing through the early morning gloom
a sudden crash and in the sea they went to meet their doom
two irish men lay dying there just like their hopes so grand
they could not give the signal now from the lonely banna strand.'

in addition to this my fifth verse is
' they sailed for queenstown harbour said the germans were undone
the british have us vanquised man for man gun for gun
weve twenty thousand rifles here that never will reach the land we'll sink them all and bid farewell to the lonely banna strand.

Subject: RE: LYR ADD: Banna Strand
From: Felipa
Date: 05 Nov 21 - 01:37 PM

poetic license indeed!
Roger Casement was apprehended at Banna Strand on 21 APRIL 1916
Good Friday it was; "the month of May" it was not

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Banna Strand
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 05 Nov 21 - 02:41 PM

Can't help thinking of how the song also inspired the name of the band Charlie Piggot, Miriam Collins and Joe Corcoran had. They were on their way to a gig when their car broke down on Corkscrew Hill between Lisdoonvarna and Ballyvaughan. They had been thinking how to call themselves and looking out in the darkness one of them said 'we are the Lonely Stranded Band'.