Songs about Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott

Subject: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: GUEST
Date: 26 Jan 16 - 08:24 PM

Anyone know of songs about Sean MacDiarmada from Leitrim who participated in and was executed as a result of the Easter 1916 Rising?

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: MartinRyan
Date: 27 Jan 16 - 02:31 PM

Apart from the mention in Donagh MacDonagh's Dublin City, I can't think of any other song references. Will rack what passes for a brain...

Regards

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: MartinRyan
Date: 27 Jan 16 - 02:37 PM

Looks like I posted MacDonagh's song in the Digital Tradition almost twenty years ago!

Click here

In practice, I find I omit the second verse when I sing the song - I just find it awkward to communicate, for some reason.

Regards

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Thompson
Date: 28 Jan 16 - 05:41 AM

You're joking! The second verse is the strongest!

Then on came Larkin in nineteen thirteen
A mighty man with a mighty tongue
The voice of labour, the voice of justice
And he was gifted and he was young
God sent Larkin in nineteen thirteen
A labouring man with a Union tongue
He raised the worker and gave him courage
He was the hero, the worker's son.

It very effectively shows how the 1913 Lockout, in which the half-starved workers of Dublin were locked out by their bullying employers, and the political groups - nationalists, leftists, feminists - were drawn together to feed the children and support the workers, the conjunction leading three years later to the 1916 Rising.

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: MartinRyan
Date: 28 Jan 16 - 05:48 AM

Hi Thompson

I've no problem with the sentiment - I just can't make it work in song! ;>)>

Regards

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: MartinRyan
Date: 28 Jan 16 - 06:07 PM

Just found a recently written song...

Click here

Regards

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Thompson
Date: 28 Jan 16 - 06:31 PM

Is this song (not attributed to Donagh MacDonagh in the webpage, but it is his) the same one or a different one?

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: MartinRyan
Date: 28 Jan 16 - 07:00 PM

Yes - seems to be a version sung by the Dubliners - and probably transcribed from a recording by them. Oddly, it also drops the second verse. In my experience it's sung maybe a third of the time.

Regards

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Young Buchan
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 06:47 PM

Sean MacDiarmid makes an equally fleeting appearance in a song by Peadar Kearney called A Row in a Town.[Kearney was the writer of Amhrán na bhFiann, and the brother of Kathleen who married Stephen Behan and gave birth to all the obvious.]

The relevant verse is:

God rest gallant Pearse and his comrades who died:
Tom Clarke, McDonagh, MacDiarmid, McBride.
And here's to Sean Heuston who gave one hurrah
And faced the machine guns for Erin Go Bragh.

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Thompson
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 07:37 PM

It's odd the way that seven men (and one unmentionable woman, of course) who changed a country have appeared only as lists in the songs of that country. And the woman not even as that.

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 08:11 PM

Grace
Sean and Frank O'Meara

As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Jail
I think about these past few weeks, oh will they say we've failed
From our schooldays they have told us we must yearn for liberty
Yet all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me.

Cho: Oh Grace just hold me in your arms ad let this moment linger
    They'll take me out at dawn and I will die
    With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger
    There won't be time to share our love for we must say goodbye.

Now I know it's hard for you my love to ever understand
The love I bear for these brave men, my love for this dear land
But when the Padhraic called me to his side down in the GPO
I had to leave my own sick bed, to him I had to go

Chorus

Now as dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too,
On this May morn as I walk out my thoughts well be of you
And I'll write some words upon the wall so everyone will know
I love so much that I could see his blood upon the rose.

Chorus

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Thompson
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 08:22 PM

Constance Markievicz was one of the most important people behind the Rising, though - typically of her time, and perhaps of today, she was shut out of the meeting in Liberty Hall of the seven who headed it.
Grace is a romantic song, but it's not about a leader of the 1916 Rising.

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Jan 16 - 09:24 PM

Joseph Mary Plunkett??? I think the song's more about him than Grace.
But a good, tear jerking, song and story.

Stand Up.... It appears to me that Constance Markievicz is ignored because "not male." Yes, she wasn't shot because she was a woman, but that was the way it was then and more especially if you were a countess.

Padraig Pearse. James Connolly. Roger Casement. All mentioned here.

Look at those men: Pearse, the noble leader; Connolly, shot in a chair; Casement, an English knight hanged for helping Ireland (or treason to England, depending on your point of view). But Con Colbert, who was known mostly for not smoking or drinking? Edward Daly? Michael Mallin? Not a lot of romance-inspiring stuff there. Tom Clarke married Edward Daly's sister and John McBride married Maude Gonne, but neither are as romantic as Plunkett.

Subject: Lyr Add: Sean MacDiarmada, the Pride of Corranmore
From: Felipa
Date: 13 May 22 - 05:46 PM

https://mickblake.bandcamp.com/track/sean-macdiarmada-the-pride-of-corranmore

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnEaMhds4Cs

Seán Mac Diarmada was executed on 12 May 1916, on the same date as James Connolly was excuted, both for their parts in the Easter Rising in Dublin.

SEÁN MAC DIARMADA (THE PRIDE OF CORRANMORE) by Mick Blake

In the town of Kiltyclogher a monument does stand
To a proud and noble Leitrim man who lived and died for Ireland
He organised an army and he rose against the crown
So Irish men and women would no more be beaten down
And driven by desire to rekindle freedom's flame,
He signed a proclamation that rejected England's claim
To Ireland and her people, her destiny restored
The man was Sean MacDiarmada, the pride of Corranmore

Now on the shores of Lough McNean, there stood a mansion grand
And the landlords that did dwell there were amongst the cruelest in the land
Nine and thirty families Lord Tottenham did rout
Then later Colonel Adamson 100 more cast out
The pain of those evictions young McDermott saw at first hand
And there and then the rebel vowed to one day make a stand
"I'll rid the Irish nation of their likes for evermore"
The pledge of Sean MacDiarmada, the pride of Corranmore

So he planned a Revolution
Preached the fiery gospel of the free
Promised an end to persecution
Til the time was right to strike for liberty

Then one Easter Monday morning, he realised his plan
When poets stood with playwrights, and rose up with the working man
To fight the forces of King George, to set the nation free
Though he knew deep in his heart it could not end in victory
But through the glorious madness of a rising doomed to fail
He hoped his deeds would resurrect the Spirit of the Gael
For six long days they battled til they could take no more
"Enough" said Sean McDiarmada, the pride of Corranmore

On General Maxwell's orders, they took him from his cell
And he hobbled to the prison yard where thirteen of his comrades fell
Then they placed the blindfold on those eyes of cobalt blue
He stood there to attention for his dream would now come true
And when those Sherwood Foresters took aim on that grey dawn
Their bullets would ensure the rebels' legacy lived on
His thoughts returned to Leitrim and McNean's lonely shore
Then they martyred Sean MacDiarmada, the pride of Corranmore

And just as he had intended
His death brought life to the cause
Soon years of tyranny ended
New Irish ways and Irish laws

In the town of Kiltyclogher a monument still stands
To honour you, Mac Diarmada, who lived and died for Ireland
But has your selfless sacrifice turned out to be in vain
For the Ireland that you died for is in bondage once again
And those who climb on stages to commend your noble deeds
Have crucified your people through austerity and greed
The Bailiffs have returned again, evictions by the score,
Where are you, Sean MacDiarmada, the pride of Corranmore
And will your likes be seen again on McNean's plundered shore?
We need you, Sean McDiarmada, the pride of Corranmore

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Felipa
Date: 13 May 22 - 06:43 PM

https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/easter-rising-sean-macdiarmada-james-connolly-executed

Subject: RE: Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: GUEST,mayomick
Date: 19 May 22 - 03:54 PM

Up the Republic, they raise their battle cry
Pearse and McDermott will pray for you on high
Eager and ready, for love of you they die
Proud march the Soldiers of the Rearguard

Subject: RE: Songs about Sean MacDiarmada/Sean McDermott
From: Felipa
Date: 20 May 22 - 04:25 PM

If you are curious about the song Mayonick posted a verse from, The Legion of the Rearguard is in the "DT" and discussed in this "origins" thread https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=80811#1476976