The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #3368   Message #1274968
Posted By: belfast
18-Sep-04 - 11:35 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: On the One Road (Irish soldier's song)
Subject: RE: Obscure Irish Soldier's Song
This song had disappeared from my consciousness but now, thanks to mudcat, it has returned. And very irritating it is too. Those lines,
"We're on the one road, maybe the wrong road
But we're together now who cares"
are either ludicrous or insane, depending on what mood you're in. And the tune. I don't really think of it as a marching song, more for swaggering or drinking. Or both. I'm told that in certain circles at the end of that couplet the audience will roar, "WHO CARES?" A good question.

My memory gives me the words as "Dublin, Galway, Cork and Donegal. The version above substitutes Belfast for Galway, crossing the border, as it were. But perhaps I had the wrong words in my head to begin with.

A guest has previously identified the writer as Frank O'Donovan. Does anybody know anything about him? A Cork man I would guess by the name. Imdb.com tells us that he was in the film "The Quare Fella" as well as the rte.tv soap "The Riordans". The digitrad has a mention of him as having recorded "The Road By The River". And that seems to be it.
We're on the one road, it may be the wrong road
But we're together now who cares