Irish Republican ballads - need advice

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: mrsmac
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 05:16 AM

What about "Aghadoe"? the lyrics are in digitrad. There was a cd brought out by RTE to commemorate the 1798 rising called "who fears to Speak", and Liam Clancy sings this song beautifully on it. Also featured on that CD are Len Graham and Aine Ui Cealliaigh along with the RTE concert Orchestra. You might well find what you are looking for there.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: GUEST,Gaeilgesinger
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 08:00 PM

Only Our Rivers Run Free is a beautiful ballad.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: ard mhacha
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 09:59 AM

I heard Tommy Fleming singing `Only our Rivers` I would say the best version I have heard.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: mrsmac
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 10:14 AM

i agree ard mhacha its on Tommy Fleming's "the Contender" and it gives me the shivers every time i hear it.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 11:17 AM

I Like the song, Lough Sheelin Eviction sung by the Wolfe Tones

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 11:49 AM

I've always been very fond of Kilkenny by the Noire, which seems to fit the bill eminently and which can be heard on the Sarah and Rita Keane CD At the Setting of the Sun. Demon. FIEND CD 771. If you can't get hold of a copy it is set to the same tune as Tipperary so Far Away


1.        Mother agra, I am leaving you now, to the wars I am bound to go.
To fight for the cause of my country, where the pretty green shamrocks grow.
Tis sorry I am to be leaving you now, but you know I'll return once more.
When the fighting is done and the battle won, to Kilkenny by the Noire.

2.        These words he spoke, just at evening, to his mother fond and true.
The tears fell fast as he took her hand to bid her a last adieu.
Then stepping quickly he turned aside and marched through the open door.
He heaved a sigh and bid good-bye to Kilkenny by the Noire.

3.        The years rolled by as one by one fell the soldiers brave and true.
Not a letter at all did his mother receive from the lines where the bullets flew.
Yet ever she prayed for the one who had strayed, she prayed he'd return once more,
when the fighting was done and the battle won to Kilkenny by the Noire.

4.        The pale moon shone down on the battlefield where the battle was fought and won.
The wild birds flew over the wounded who'd ne'er see the rising sun.
And there in the quiet of that moonlit night a dying young soldier lay.
His comrades stood round as he lay on the ground and these words he did say.

5.        Tell my dear mother how bravely I fought and died as a soldier may.
With her picture held close to my bleeding breast as my life's blood was ebbing away.
Tell her tis home, never more shall I roam, I will ne'er see her face ever more.
Or the home that I left where in childhood Iplayed, in Kilkenny by the Noire.

6.        Slowly and sadly they laid him to rest in the spot where he fought and fell
No stone or mark did they place o'er his grave, his deeds and his valour to tell And there quite forgotten he sleeps his last sleep, 'neath the shamrock he fought for of yore.
Except by the one who is praying there still in Kilkenny by the Noire.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 12:25 PM

Gallipoli.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 12:26 PM

song for marcella is a good one....

Also Gary Og's Plastic Bullets.

Then there is Town I loved so well

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: captainbirdseye
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 12:52 PM

or oh for the orange and the lily.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: Declan
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 01:34 PM

Although the marble in Kilkenny is Black th river is the Nore rahter than the Nore. The Town I Loved so Well a Republican song? I would have classed it as a Peace song.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: Declan
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 01:48 PM

Serves me right, I point out a typo in someones post and make two myself!

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: Declan
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 04:40 PM

Now back to the topic. I am not personally a fan of republican ballads, but I get to hear a lot of them despite my best intentions.

I don't think that any of the songs on the following list exactly meet your criteria but might be adapted to do so, or may spark some ideas in others.

1. The Mother by P H Pearse

This is a poem in which a Mother says she does not grudge the lives of her two sons who fought and died for their country. Padraig Pearse was the leader of the Irish Volunteers in the Easter Rebellion in 1916. Himself and his brother Willie were excecuted by the British for their part in the Rebellion. Big drawback here is that I don't know if it has ever been put to music (but someone else around here might).

2. The Time is Come by Christy Moore

This is a song of a mother and son saying goodbye. Although it isn't that explicit from the lyrics the context of the song is that the son is one of the H Block hunger strikers who is dying in 1981. Although the song has a traditional feel to it, it might be a bit too modern for what you're looking for.

3. Bramblethorn by Sarah Daniels

This is a beautiful song recorded by the group Brodrick (featuring Sarah's son Luke) and by Niamh Parsons (with Graham Dunne and Anne Parsons-Dunne) on the album Hearts Desire. It is not a Republican song (and is in fact English) but it tells of the plight of women left at home while their men are away fighting in an unspecified war. Very much an anti-wa

4. A Stor Mo Chroi (trad recorded by various people as discussed in a recent mudcat thread) is a song in which a parent (I always think of it as a mother) is saying goodbyre to a child. THe context of the song is emigration rather than war, but it meets some of the criteria.

5. Skibereen

This song is very much a Republican rallying cry and has a beautiful air. THe parent telling the story in this case is almost certainly a father.

6. Danny Boy (origins controversial at least around here!)

In some ways this song may seem the obvious choice and has been interpreted by some as being about a Mother who is saying goodbye to son on his way to war. Before the usual suspects jump in let eme be the first to say that, desite the popular perception there is some doubt as to just how Irish this song is, although the air was definitely collected in Derry at some stage in the past.

I hope these suggestions are useful or may spark some ideas that will lead you to the song you are looking for. I can't help feeling there's a song out there that exacly fits the bill of whatg you are looking for, but I haven't been able to identify which one it might be yet.

Subject: RE: Irish Republican ballards - need advice
From: Amergin
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 12:48 AM

Plastic Bullets
Gary Og

In Belfast streets I've heard it said,
They're shooting little children dead,
Taking lives hardly begun,
With plastic bullets in their guns.

chorus.
We won't be kept down easily,
We will not be still,
We will not be kept down easily,
After all you maimed and killed.

Young Carol Ann, just 12 years of age,
Shot down by Brits. in bloody rage,
Wee Julie Livingstone as well,
Fell victim to their, plastic hell.

Chorus.

They tried to drag us from our streets,
By taking lives so young and sweet,
Do they not know, we'll not be beat,
And that violence is their own defeat.

Chorus

They try to make us toe their line,
By using every type of crime,
But, freedom won't be terrorised,
Nor freedom's struggle, criminalised.

Chorus