The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #38526 Message #2794798
Posted By: Jim Dixon
23-Dec-09 - 01:00 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Who was Brennan on the Moor?
Subject: Lyr Add: A LAMENT ON THE EXECUTION OF CAPT BRENNAN
From The Harp of Erin: A Book of Ballad-Poetry and of Native Song by Ralph Varian (Dublin: M'Glashan & Gill, 1869), page 272:
A LAMENT ON THE EXECUTION OF CAPTAIN BRENNAN.
1. It's of a famous highwayman a story I will tell;
His name was Willy Brennan, in Ireland he did dwell;
And on the Kilworth Mountains he commenced his wild career,
Where many a wealthy gentleman before him shook with fear.
CHORUS: Brennan on the moor, Brennan on the moor,
Bold and undaunted stood young Brennan on the moor.
2. A brace of loaded pistols he carried night and day;
He never robbed a poor man upon the king's highway;
But what he'd taken from the rich, like Turpin and Black Bess,
He always did divide it with the widow in distress.
3. One night he robbed a packman, of the name of Pedlar Bawn;
They travelled together till the day began to dawn;
The pedlar seeing his money gone, likewise his watch and chain,
He at once encountered Brennan, and robbed him back again.
4. Now, Brennan seeing the pedlar as good a man as he,
He says, "My worthy hero, will you come along with me?"
The pedlar, being stout-hearted, he threw his pack away,
And he proved a loyal comrade until his dying day."
5. One day on the highway, as Willy he sat down,
He met the Mayor of Cashel a mile outside the town.
The Mayor, he knew his features—"I think, young man," said he,
"Your name is Willy Brennan—you must come along with me."
6. As Brennan's wife had gone to town provisions for to buy,
When she saw her Willy, she began to weep and cry.
He says, "Give me that tenpenny." As soon as Willy spoke,
She handed him a blunderbuss from underneath her cloak.
7. Then with his loaded blunderbuss, the truth I will unfold,
He made the Mayor to tremble, and robbed him of his gold;
One hundred pounds was offered for his apprehension there,
And he, with his horse and saddle, to the mountain did repair.
8. Then Brennan being an outlaw upon the mountain high,
The cavalry and infantry to take him they did try;
He laughed at them with scorn, until at length, it's said,
By a false-hearted woman he basely was betrayed.
9. In the County Tipperary, at a place they call Clonmore,
Willy Brennan and his comrade that day did suffer sore:
He lay amongst the fern, which was thick upon the field,
And nine wounds he did receive before that he did yield.
10. Then Brennan and his companion, when they were betrayed,
They with the mounted cavalry a noble battle made;
He lost his foremost finger, which was shot off by a ball,
So Brennan and his comrade they were taken after all.
11. So they were taken prisoners, in irons they were bound,
And conveyed to Clonmel Jail, strong walls did them surround.
They were tried and found guilty—the Judge made this reply:
"For robbing on the king's highway you're both condemned to die."
12. When Brennan heard his sentence, he made this reply:—
"I own that I did rob the rich, and did the poor supply;
In all the deeds that I have done I took no life away;
The Lord have mercy on my soul against the judgment-day.
13. "Farewell unto my wife, and to my children three,
Likewise my aged father—he may shed tears for me;
And to my loving mother"—who tore her grey locks and cried,
Saying, "I wish, Willy Brennan, in your cradle you had died."