In one of the posts above Allan C says that one of the "historical" things he learned from a folksong was, "...I found out that Irish lads were conscripted into the British army to fight in the French and Indian war." - I can't remember any French and Indian war post 1916 (The year conscription was introduced as a means of raising men to serve in the British Army - Also conscription has never applied in Ireland, the rumour that it might be was one of the factors that triggered the Easter Week Rising of 1916.)

Another one that always puzzles me is the seemingly automatic assumption that the late Willie McBride was an Irishman - If the pipes played "The Flowers of the Forest", he would almost certainly have been a Scot, or someone serving in a Scottish Regiment.

I agree with toadfrog above when he says that, "..songs are not a particularly good source of facts." A good example of this is, taken from another thread, where someone made a reference to a line contained in "The Cottiers Story" (??) about "twenty million" being paid by Britain to alleviate the suffering of slaves while all Irelands needs during the famine had to be covered by fifty thousand pounds, also that the largest source of relief, by donation, came from native American Indians. This is simply not bourne out by the facts - Donations from America, approximately 1.5 million, donations from the Society of Friends (Quakers) in England, approximately 2.5 million, Cost to the British Government approximately 9 million (Source for this is C. Woodham-Smith's book "The Great Hunger").

Generally, when it comes to conflicts (be they civil, social, or military), the victors tend to write the history, the losers tend to write the songs. I can think of lots of Jacobite songs covering the rebellions of 1715 and 1745, but can think of very, very few where the Governments case is stated in song (one of which is the unsung verse of the British National Anthem which contains the line "Rebellious Scots to crush"). One of the best examples of factual lyrics is found in the words of "Sherrifmuir". The words were written, by Robert Burns, from three perspectives. Like many of "his" songs, Burns put words to pipe tunes to save them (wearing of tartan and playing bagpipes were proscribed during Burns lifetime). Sherrifmuir was a battle in the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. Inconclusive in nature (the respective left wings of one army overpowered the respective right wings of the other, while the centre sections fought a stalemate) it was technically a Government victory as it halted the Rebels advance. When Burns wrote the words he used his own notes taken from three survivors, each of whom had fought in each position on the battlefield.

An interest in history led me to folk music. I think it's great reading of instances where people listen to the lyrics of a song and are moved to research the history and context of a song. Possibly one good thread subject might be "What song have really liked and then been really disappointed when you researched it?"

Fascinating thread Jock - Thanks for introducing it!!!