Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: Big Tim
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 11:00 AM

Thank you Ard and Ian.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: IanC
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:37 AM

Tim

Looks like it was a bloodless protest, though it spread to other local barracks. 14 were sentenced to death, but all but James Daly had the sentences commuted to imprisonment. It was the last time the death penalty was used by the British Army.

Useful article in this "Old Galway" page from the Galway Advertiser.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: ard mhacha
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:26 AM

Big Tim, Go to Wild geese today Site and type in James Daly for all of the information you require. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: ard mhacha
Date: 08 Nov 02 - 10:19 AM

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: Big Tim
Date: 07 Nov 02 - 03:17 AM

Does anyone know what actually happened in Jullunder in 1920? Was there any gunfire, loss of life, how many men were involved, were they Irish only, how long did the mutiny last, etc.

Jullunder is in the Punjab province of north India.

Jullunder (population 400,000)
Only 80 km SE of Amritsar this was once the capital of an ancient Hindu kingdom...the town has a large serai built in 1857 [the year of the Indian Mutiny, if my memory is correct] and is a good place to get out and see some Sikh farming villages" - Lonely Planet guide to India, 1990 edition.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 01:38 PM

I also read Masota`s Link, and I wouldn`t argue that the song was altered to coincide with Daly`s death.
It wouldn`t be the first time that this has been done, all I can add is that I heard the song when a boy some 50 years ago and as my father was in the Connaught Rangers during WW1 he also associated the song with Daly. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: Big Tim
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:29 AM

Thanks Ian: if I can dredge up some inspiration I'll try and come up with a verse, in the language and style of the original song, that ties it more specifically to James Daly.

Watch this space, but not for a few days!

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: IanC
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:09 AM

Tim

I think the pertinent information is that Alfred Williams collected a version of the song about 4 years before James Daly died. Presumably, the words were later altered to fit the particular circumstances.

:-)

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: Big Tim
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 11:01 AM

Before I was just ignorant. Now I'm ignorant and confused. Who are all these people mentioned in Ian C's post? Surely the song has to be about JD: an execution, firing squad, "young Connaught Ranger"?

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: IanC
Date: 06 Nov 02 - 04:26 AM

Folks

It's a pity Masato didn't post the relevant part of the link above, or else you would probably have read it. I'll do it now to avoid too many red faces.

Re:George Dunn - Chainmaker - 2:

Dear Rod,

I've just seen the booklet and notes accompanying your recent George Dunn CD and can add the following information with regard to one of George' songs, Lay Him Away on the Hillside, and its connection to the circumstances surrounding the execution of Private Jim Daly of the Connaught Rangers in India in 1920. I should point out that what follows represents prolonged correspondence among and meetings with all the principals (living!) mentioned below to whom credit must be due for additions, adjustments and corrections.

Firstly, Alfred Williams collected a version from a Mrs W(h)infield (the name was used variously) of Holwell Green, near Burford, Oxfordshire which was entitled Sentenced to Death. The chronology of Williams' activity puts this before November 1916, though Andrew Bathe, who is researching the collecting of Alfred Williams, points out that, since there is no forename attached to the singer, there are several candidates in the village to choose from. At any rate, this date of collecting throws some light on the Connaught Rangers episode - which Roy Palmer referred to first in his book, What A Lovely War (1990), but which connection had been made earlier by Gordon Cox in an article in Lore and Language (1982). Mr Cox's article contained two somewhat conflicting suggestions; the first to the effect that the song was 'about the mutiny of the Connaught Rangers' and the second, less specifically, that it was 'just one of the songs that was a fairly recent composition at the time'. Given the Williams version, it does seem that the Jim Daly affair must have been, as it were, an afterthought, attached to an earlier song-text.

:-)
Ian

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 05 Nov 02 - 12:39 PM

This song often sang in my youth by the local balladers has a lovely air, I have a recording from about 40 years ago, the young lady singer certainly does this song justice, pity I never got her name.
The words are the same as those produced by Big Tim. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 04:37 PM

Thanks for the lyrics. Surprised it wasn't in the DT

Subject: ADD: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: Big Tim
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 04:21 PM

LAY HIM AWAY ON THE HILLSIDE

The grey dawn has crept o'er the stillness of morning,
The dew drops they glisten like icicles breath,
The notes of the bugle have sounded their warning,
A young Connaught Ranger lay sentenced to death,
No cold-blooded murder had stained his pure conscience,
He called as a witness his maker on high,
He'd simply been fighting for Ireland's loved freedom,
Arrested and tried he was sentenced to die

CHORUS
Lay him away on [or, "o'er"] the hillside,
Along with the brave and the bold,
Inscribe his name on the scroll of fame,
In letters of purest gold,
My conscience will never convict me,
He said with his dying breath,
May God bless the cause of freedom,
For which I am sentenced to death.

He thought of the love of his feeble old mother,
He though of the cailin [colleen] so dear to his heart,
The sobs of affection, he scarcely could smother,
Well knowing how soon from them both he must part,
He feared not to die though his heart was near broken,
Twas simply remembrance of those he loved well,
His rosary he presssed to his heart as a token,
The prayer cheered his soul in the felon's lone cell

CHORUS

To the dim barrack square, the doomed hero was hurried,
In the grey of the dawn er the sun rose on high,
With head held erect, undaunted, unworried,
The gallant young soldier went proudly to die,
I blame not my comrades for doing their duty,
Aim straight for my heart, were the last words he said,
Exposing his breast to the point of the rifles,
The smoke cleared away, the young soldier lay dead

CHORUS

The song is about James Daly, aged 20, from Tyrellspass, Co. Westmeath, Ireland, who was executed in India in 1920 for leading an an army "mutiny" in protest against British Black and Tan atrocities, as he saw it, back home in Ireland. He was a member of the Connaught Rangers Regiment of the British Army. BT.

Transcribed from "26 Irish Rebel Songs - Volume 2". Derry records, 1997.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: Big Tim
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 03:16 PM

Thanks Ard for confirmation that the song is about James Daly. I suspected so, a line in the song is "a young Connaught Ranger lay sentenced to death" and I knew that JD was a member of the Connaught Rangers. The execution date was 2 July 1920 (according to O'Farrell's Who's Who book), JD was aged 20.

The song is quite a long one, I have a recording of it, if nobody can find the lyrics more conveniently I will transcribe and post, probably tomorrow.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 02:09 PM

Not in DT? Would like to see the words to "Ly Him Away...."

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 12:55 PM

From the "Last Post" published by The National Graves Association,
James Daly, Tyrrellspass, County Westmeath. Executed at Jullunder 1920, for his involvment in Connaught Rangers Mutiny. buried Dayshai India. Reinterred Tyrrelspass, 1st November 1970.
"Lay him away on the hillside" was composed as a tribute to Daly. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: masato sakurai
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 11:11 AM

See THIS PAGE.
~Masato

Subject: Origins: Lay Him Away on the Hillside
From: Big Tim
Date: 04 Nov 02 - 03:00 AM

I suspect this song is about the execution of Irishman James Daly in India in 1920 for leading a "mutiny" in the British Army, in protest against Black and Tan activity in Ireland. Can anybody confirm or deny? And any more info on the song and the historical facts?