a particular version of 'The Croppy Boy'

Subject: RE: a particular version of 'The Croppy Boy'
From: GUEST,g
Date: 22 May 26 - 02:17 PM

I found the Liam Clancy version on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tInaWoKfFUY and the Makem / Clancy Brothers one at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5A4cskRCn8.

Unfortunately both of them differ from the words I remember at almost every one of the points I marked with numbered footnotes; neither can possibly be what I am remembering unless my memory is sufficiently garbled that _any_ version of The Croppy Boy would do equally well :-).

The Dubliners (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QMx1lXgUKc) also differ more or less everywhere. Anne Byrne (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jhe6rlo_jpI) matches in several places but e.g. has a "Wexford Street" verse with the cousin, has the father in the gallows verse, and doesn't have the final verse. The Wolfe Tones (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYssHwKvT2I), besides being insultingly jaunty, has an extra verse transplanted from the _other_ "Croppy Boy", no black-and-blue verse, no cousin, the singer's father by the gallows, and various other differences.

(I checked dozens of other things returned by YouTube without any success, though I admit I skipped over some things that looked like obvious duplicates and it's possible some of them actually weren't.)

Subject: RE: a particular version of 'The Croppy Boy'
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 May 26 - 12:10 PM

perhaps LiamClancy?

Subject: RE: a particular version of 'The Croppy Boy'
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 May 26 - 12:03 PM

The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem's famous recording of "The Croppy Boy" was first released in 1959 on their debut traditional Irish rebel album, The Rising of the Moon (Irish Songs of Rebellion).

Subject: RE: a particular version of 'The Croppy Boy'
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 22 May 26 - 11:20 AM

Except for the order of the verses, this is very close to M. C. Dean's version. But you could hardly have heard a recording of that in the 1980s. :-)

Subject: a particular version of 'The Croppy Boy'
From: GUEST,g
Date: 22 May 26 - 09:55 AM

Somewhere around 40 years ago, I heard (enough times to have a pretty good memory of it) a version of the Irish Republican song "The Croppy Boy" that (1) doesn't appear to be any of the ones I can find recordings of on YouTube and (2) doesn't appear to have quite the same lyrics as any I've found on the internet.

(Is "Republican" the right term? Maybe not. It's about the 1798 rebellion. Maybe this is a good place to mention that there are two quite different songs called "The Croppy Boy"; it will be obvious which one this is a version of from the lyrics below.)

Does anyone recognize this version?

(If anyone thinks that they might be able to identify it but it would take some digging, I suggest waiting a week; I will consult with my parents, who owned the recording in question and may possibly still have it, or at least remember who made it. If so, I'll post a followup here.)

Here are the lyrics as I remember them. Numbered footnotes are for things that I'm fairly sure of, are not common to all versions, and so might be helpful for identifying mine. Lettered footnotes are for things I might be misremembering. (Of course I am probably misremembering more than I think I am, but my memory for this sort of thing is quite good and I'll be surprised if my memory is badly wrong in places I don't anticipate.) Obviously all the punctuation is merely my best guess.

'Twas[1] early, early, all in the spring,
The small birds[2] whistled and did sweetly sing,
Changing their notes from tree to tree,
And the song they sang was Old Ireland free.

'Twas early, early, on[a] Tuesday night,
The yeoman cavalry gave me a fright.
To my misfortune and sad downfall,
I was taken prisoner by one Lord Cornwall.

[b]

I choose[3] the black and I choose the blue,
I choose the red and the orange too.
I did forsake them, did them deny;
I choose the green, and for green I'll die.

As I was marching up Wexford Hill[4],
Who could have blamed me if I cried[c] my fill?
I looked behind and I looked before,
But my aged mother I could see[5] no more.

As I was mounting the gallows[6] high,
My own first cousin[7] was standing by.
My own first cousin did me betray,
And for one bare guinea[8] sold[d] my life away.

'Twas in Dungannon[e] this young man died,
And in Dungannon his body lies.
All you good people[f] who do pass by,
Read a prayer[9], shed a tear for the Croppy Boy.

[1] Many versions have "It was" but I am sure I remember "'Twas" in this version.
[2] Many versions have "The birds did whistle".
[3] There's a well-known recording by Anne Byrne that has a verse like this but with "chose" rather than "choose" throughout and I'm pretty sure "choose" is what I remember.
[4] Many versions have a verse involving Wexford _Street_ and this is where the first cousin comes in. Not this one.
[5] Some versions have "shall see" which frankly makes more sense but I'm fairly sure about "could see". Also, some versions have "tender mother" (sometimes with an "aged father" later on) but I'm fairly sure about "aged mother".
[6] I'm _fairly_ sure it's a gallows and not as in many versions a platform or a scaffold.
[7] At this point in most versions of the song the singer's _father_ is introduced, the first cousin having turned up earlier. No father in this version.
[8] I think there are versions with larger sums of money. Definitely one bare guinea for me.
[9] I've seen other versions of the song with similar sentiments at the end but none with "read a prayer". BUT I see that one version of the _other_ "Croppy Boy" song has a similar last line with "breathe a prayer". If the performance I'm remembering had "breathe" I could have misheard it.

[a] Might be "one Tuesday night" or even "last Tuesday night" as in one version in an old Mudcat thread. I'm pretty sure it's Tuesday rather than say Thursday.
[b] Everything in the song other than the following black-and-blue verse has an obvious order, but I can't swear I've got the placement of that verse correct.
[c] I've seen "blamed me to cry my fill"; that's not what I remember but it's the kind of thing I might be misremembering.
[d] I've seen "swore my life away" in one version online and I'm not 100% sure that's not what the version I heard has. But "sold" is what I happen to remember.
[e] One Mudcat thread about TCB suggests that Duncannon might be more correct, though the same thread has a version of the lyrics with Dungannon. What I have in my brain is definitely -g- not -c-.
[f] I've seen "Christians" here; "people" is what I remember but I'm not super-confident about it.

A few other notes: (1) the _tune_ I remember is slightly different from ones in recordings I've found online, but I am less certain that isn't a defect in my memory; (2) I also find that the version in my memory of "Boolavogue" (another song about the 1798 rebellion, the one about "Father Murphy of the County Wexford") doesn't quite match anything I can find online, so _maybe_ whatever recording I'm remembering has both of those on it? My memory of that one is distinctly hazier, though. (3) I'm about 95% sure that the performance I remember is by a man rather than a woman. Baritone range, I _think_. (4) As I mentioned above, I heard this in the 1980s. My guess is that the actual performance was in the 1960s or 1970s, but I wouldn't stake much on that guess.

Many thanks in advance!