Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the Pride of Sweet Clogheen

Subject: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Murpholly
Date: 25 Sep 09 - 05:10 PM

Many seem to have heard of this song but cannot find anyone who knows the lyrics. Mary Bowles ran guns for the I.R.A. during the burning of Cork. She spent some time in Cork Goal. Any help greatly appreciated as my mother-in-law told stories of this lass and her sister when hubby was growing up.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,Jackie Bowles
Date: 20 Feb 13 - 04:41 PM

Mary Bowles the pride of sweet clogheen
never yet was there known a maid a lady or a queen
to match the deeds of mary bowls the pride of sweet clogheen
and when dump was emptying out sure mary wasn't slow
to hide the precious guns she bravely tried to go

Just discovered this recently actually, unfortunately this was all the person who recited it could remember, I went online looking for the rest and your post was all that came up!

Id love to chat to you as obviously this is part of my history too!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,999
Date: 20 Feb 13 - 05:05 PM

The following snippet was taken from The Companion to Irish Traditional Music - Page 357 which I found on Mr Google.

"Never yet was known a lady, not yet was known a queen
To match the deeds of Mary Bowles, the Pride of sweet Clogheen."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,999
Date: 20 Feb 13 - 05:24 PM

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/40118109

And about 60% down the page of the following link is a paragraph about Mary Bowles.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/47999010

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,999
Date: 20 Feb 13 - 05:37 PM

"5d Mary Bowles of Clogheen, Cork, before Field General Courtmartial; charged with having 25 rounds of ammunition, revolver, pistol, machine gun."

from a Google of


Moving Here | Catalogue

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,999
Date: 20 Feb 13 - 05:43 PM

Note, different articles variously give her age as 14 or 16. That said, I'm locating no lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Murpholly
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 02:06 PM

Hi Jackie, Are you related to Mary. We have met several people who knew her when we have visited relatives in and around Cork and have heard several not so pleasant rhymes about her as well as tales that even the garda were terrified of visiting on their own during her latter years.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,Aidan Bowles
Date: 21 Feb 13 - 02:14 PM

D-auntMary Bowles was my grandaunt

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Murpholly
Date: 22 Feb 13 - 06:47 AM

Hi Aidan - are you Michael Bowles grandson? This is fascinating having spent so long looking for this song and more about the family.
Are you still living around Clogheen?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 12 Mar 13 - 12:50 AM

From Renegades: Irish Republican Women 1900-1922 by Ann Matthews (Cork: Mercier Press, 2010), page 262:

In Cork, Mary Bowles from Clogheen 'was charged with trying to hide a Lewis gun in a field, while a military raid was in progress.' On being searched, Mary 'was found to be wearing steel body armour strapped to her shoulders, which was fastened at her sides. She was also in possession of a service revolver and an automatic pistol; bot were loaded in every chamber.' Because she was under-age, she was sentenced 'to be detained in a Roman Catholic Reformatory, until she attained the age of nineteen.'

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Murpholly
Date: 12 Mar 13 - 08:22 AM

We have lots of information about Mary Bowles including Irish Republican Women and the entry in the Cork Gaol book. Aging cousins gave us bits of details as did my mother-in-law and we have gleaned all sorts of bits of information from newspaper cuttings from around the world (the Irish diaspora certainly kept on top of happenings back home). It was always the extra of the words of the song we were interested in especially as we tend to sing lots of Irish songs at our pub gigs and especially around St. Patrick's Day. Any further information always welcome.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,Ruth
Date: 14 Apr 16 - 12:26 PM

I have the full lyrics and a story from the writer if anyone is still interested I can email it on?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: michaelr
Date: 14 Apr 16 - 08:12 PM

Guest Ruth -- please post the lyrics and other information here on Mudcat. Many of us will be interested. Thanks!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Murpholly
Date: 15 Apr 16 - 04:18 AM

I have quite a bit of the story of Mary Bowles and hve actually met some of the people who knew her in later life. She terrified them when they were children. She still owned an ancient gun and apparently even the guarda were nervous of calling on her. Please do post the full lyrics.

Subject: Lyr Add: MARY BOWLES THE PRIDE OF SWEET CLOGHEEN
From: GUEST,Hilary
Date: 15 Apr 16 - 09:26 PM

From Songs from the Beautiful City: The Cork Urban Ballads by Jimmy Crowley (book).

Mary Bowles the noble lass
She played a hero's part
When cruel tyrants tried to crush
A generous Irish heart
Never yet was known a lady
Nor likewise ne'er a queen
Who would match the deeds of Mary Bowles
The pride of sweet Clogheen

Chorus:
And it's hands up, hands up, Mary Bowles!
You'll hear the children sing
All along the streets of Pokertown
As she rides to sweet Clogheen

With blackened stick she sketched and drew
Upon a prison wall
But true as steel to gallant friends
She would not talk at all
They took her to the Bridewell
And then to Sunday's Well
But freedom's song bloomed in her breast
And never would she tell

I pray to heaven that every maid
Like Mary, would be true
To comrades brave; to Ireland's cause
To God and Róisín Dubh
Then we would boast a patriot host
From whence to pick a queen
To match the deeds of Mary Bowles
The pride of sweet Clogheen

A heart that swelled with pride and joy
And longed for Ireland's cause
And with the volunteers she pledged
To scuttle England's laws
She tried to hide a Lewis gun
And she scarcely seventeen
While bullets flew around her path
The pride of sweet Clogheen

Mary Bowles, the noble lass
She rode up Blarney Lane
Astride her mare, no one would dare
To show to her disdain
Hands up, hands up, Mary Bowles
You'd hear the children say
She was a freedom fighter
They heard their parents say

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Murpholly
Date: 16 Apr 16 - 05:20 AM

Thank you so very much. It has taken a great deal of time and effort to find out more about Mary Bowles of whom my mother-in-law talked as she remembered her riding up Blarney Road in Cork towards Clogheen. It is even a very long time since I first posted this on Mudcat - so never give up, there is usually someone out there who has the answer. We are off to Dublin in the green next week for our time of commemmoration and maybe back down to Cork next year.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,guest cork
Date: 17 Sep 16 - 01:33 AM

I married into the Bowles Clan and was going mad trying to find this for my father in law. Like others I could only find vague lyrics or references to it. Brought it up with a musical friend of mine who told me of Crowleys book being released so was delighted to get this earlier in the year as a gift for him!

Then she passed the song onto her friend who is doing a PHD in singing. She was doing a national tour Songs of 1916 this year and she decided to sing it as part of her repertoire. She then went one better and she recorded it! Link below.

https://rosieng.bandcamp.com/releases

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,NoirinL
Date: 06 Feb 17 - 04:29 AM

Lovely thread.
I'm learning this song - having heard it from Rosie and the children in St Mary's Cathedral in Limerick.
This Facebook post from Mick Fortune is from a subsequent concert they featured in. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1285115924843196&id=100000344014600

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,michael o'connell
Date: 23 Apr 17 - 04:42 AM

I remember this lady riding her horse past my home in Blarneny Street in the late fifties. My mother had told me she was a famous IRA women who sat very upright on what seemed a giant of a horse to a very small child her name will always be remembered as part of my childhood

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: Thompson
Date: 23 Apr 17 - 06:16 AM

she was sentenced 'to be detained in a Roman Catholic Reformatory, until she attained the age of nineteen

God help her; it was no wonder she was scarifying as an old lady. Those reformatories were under the vicious rule of nuns including the Sisters of Charity; they also ran Magdalene Laundries and their victims were often moved from the prison of the reformatory (or of the nuns' awful orphanages) to the prison of the laundry at around fifteen years of age. From a witness statement in the Ryan Report on the laundries (the statements from the Murphy Report on the reformatories were the same, with extra added rape and abuse):

"it didn't matter how ill you were, you still had to work that day". She says that she never refused to work at High Park, Drumcondra, "I knew I had no choice, I had to do it ... or else I would get a good slapping and I didn't want a slapping. So I had to persevere and just get on with the work".

Another punishment:

"They'd put me down the hole because I wouldn't work … a four by four room ... There was nothing in it, only a bench – no windows. You were put in there; your hair was cut, more or less off completely. Your hair was cut, and you were there all day without anything to eat until they came down for you at five o'clock and took you up. Then you had to go into the Sacred Heart room where the recreation was and kneel down in front of everybody in the room, kiss the floor and say you were sorry, and then the nun read the riot act to you. The Sr d_ C______, Mother d_ C______, whatever, read the riot act to you."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jan 18 - 08:43 AM

Does anybody know where she is buried as there are republicans interested in commentating her

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Apr 18 - 12:15 PM

We have some great photographs of her at home if anyone would like to see copies of them?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the pride of sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,Aidan Bowles
Date: 17 Jun 18 - 02:05 PM

I would love to see any pics you have of my Great Aunt Mary Bowles. We used to regularly visit her, and her sister Peg, at their cottage in Clogheen. I’ll never forget when they were being hooked up to the ESB Electric Grid. They were hesitant, because someone told them the wires would attract lighting. [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the Pride of Sweet Clogheen
From: Murpholly
Date: 18 Jun 18 - 04:05 AM

I missed Guest note of photographs of Mary when I was on holiday. Would love to see them also.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the Pride of Sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,Guest
Date: 15 Sep 18 - 03:33 PM

Here's a link to a performance of the song: .https://soundcloud.com/roisin-ni-galloglaigh/the-pride-of-sweet-clogheen

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the Pride of Sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,Neil Murphy
Date: 24 Sep 18 - 11:02 AM

To all relations and admirers of Maria Mary Bowles
There is a commemorative plaque being unveiled at the site of the home of Mary Bowles on the junction of the old blarney road and the clogheen to kerry pike road on Sunday next 30-09-18 at 3pm

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the Pride of Sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 20 - 06:45 PM

Theres a photo of Mary's 'armour' at the National Museum of Ireland.
Ann Marie Coghlan posted this on the facebook page Cork Genealogical Society / IGP County Cork March 2020.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/corkgenealogicalsociety/?post_id=2883430528367039.

Apologies I couldn't quite link the photo here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the Pride of Sweet Clogheen
From: GUEST,Édaín -Guest
Date: 08 May 20 - 09:10 PM

I would really love to see photographs of Maria Bowles (we knew her as Maria) We were her neighbours in Clogheen, and I remember her when I was a child (late 60's early 70's) riding up and down the road, she was a fine horse woman. My email address is [e-mail] from the guest above or from Aidan Bowles? regards Edaín

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary Bowles the Pride of Sweet Clogheen
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 09 May 20 - 03:31 AM

REPORT HERE
FASCINATING INFORMATION HERE
Further information, from 'The Mother Jones Festival' Cork (2017)
In Clogheen, on the northern ridge of the city, Mary Bowles was arrested in January 1921 as she tried to hide a Lewis gun while local men escaped from an attempted ambush. She suffered dreadfully at the hands of her captors, and was imprisoned although just a very young teenage girl. She is remembered in a ballad “Mary Bowles… the Pride of Sweet Clogheen”

As someone who has become fascinated in the link between history and locally made songs, I am grateful to have been introduced to this great young lady
Jim Carroll