Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men

Subject: Bold Fenian Men
From: Leprechaun
Date: 23 Sep 97 - 01:52 AM

I've been looking for a recording of a song I heard part of on the radio several years ago. The part I heard went:

"As down by the Glenside, I spied old woman.
She was pluckin' young nettles.
She scarce saw me comin'
I listened a while
To the song she was hummin'
Glory-oh, glory-oh, to our bold Fenian Men.
Some died by the glenside,
Some died with a stranger,
And wise men have said,
That their cause was a failure.
They fought for their freedom,
And they never feared danger.
Glory-oh, glory-oh, to our bold Fenian men.

It was a female vocalist, I thought possibly Mary Black, but I have been unable to locate the song anywhere since.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Lidi
Date: 23 Sep 97 - 01:56 AM

Hi

I have heard the same song, only with Dubliners , it´s actually in the Digibase, but try with "Down by the Glenside"

Cheers

Lidi

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 23 Sep 97 - 09:41 AM

Just looking at the version in the DT - I think there's another verse somewhere. It'll probably come to me at 3 a.m. tomorrow morning!

Regards

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Bob Schwarer
Date: 23 Sep 97 - 05:11 PM

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem recorded it. Even have an album with that title.

Bob Schwarer

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Bill D
Date: 23 Sep 97 - 09:10 PM

Richard Dyer-Bennet also recorded it many years ago...wonderful version!!

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 24 Sep 97 - 04:50 AM

This is verse three:

"When I was a young girl, their marching and drilling
Awoke in the glenside sounds awesome and thrilling
They loved poor old Ireland and to die they were willing
Glory o ......

Written by Peadar Kearney. He also wrote the satirical "God Bless England" ( another Clancy brothers favourite) and the Irish National Anthem. He was uncle of Brendan Behan, the playwright and, like him, a house pointer.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Leprechaun
Date: 24 Sep 97 - 10:11 AM

Thank you all! I found it in the database! What a wealth of information!

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 24 Sep 97 - 11:12 AM

thanx for the additional verse, Martin

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 22 Mar 99 - 12:32 PM

Refresh for reference

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: GUEST,Cadence
Date: 06 Mar 04 - 11:04 PM

Hi, I just bought The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Maken's cd with "Down By the Glenside" on it, and I can't find the right lyrics to it. Most of the lyrics I've looked up are missing the 3rd verse or are completely wrong. I know what I'm hearing and it's nothing I can find on the internet. :( If anybody knows the EXACT lyrics to this version on this cd, please e-mail them to me at [e-mail]   

Thank you very much

~Cadence~

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Jim McLean
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 04:32 AM

I heard the original from Dominic Behan whose uncle (as has already been pointed out) wrote the lyrics. There are a few differences in to what has already been posted but not too significant although I think verse four benefits from the original line 'Some died by the glenside, some died mid the stranger..'.
'Mid the stranger' rather than 'near the stranger'.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: paddymac
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 09:35 AM

This really is a great song, and far too infrequently performed, IMHO.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: belfast
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 12:51 PM

My favourite version of this song is by Delia Murphy, recorded in the fifties, I think, and now available on CD. I tend to think of it as the definitive version against which all others are measured.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: belfast
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 12:56 PM

And to be strictly accurate the title of the song is "Down By The Glenside". This would be merest pedantry but for the fact that there is another song called "The Bold Fenian Men" which is posted elsewhere.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: ard mhacha
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 05:15 PM

Belfast, I also have Delia Murphy`s recording, it is as good if not better than the other recordings I have, wasn`t Down by the Glenside sung in one of John Ford`s westerns, I think the film was, She wore a yellow ribbon.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Jimmy C
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 09:10 PM

Ard Macha, I also have Delia's version of it, I love it. Through all her life she never lost one bit of her Connemara accent, and she moved in some high social circles for years. There was a movie with the song in it,, it may have been " She wore a yellow ribbon", it was when some cavalry officers were outside the cottage of I think Maureen O'Hara", it was the night before her wedding and they sang it for her. They only played it he first night in the Hippodrome in Belfast, there was a minor riot, so they cut the song out of the movie the next night and all other nights.

Only in Belfast - what ?

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: ard mhacha
Date: 08 Mar 04 - 04:48 PM

I remember that scene and Victor McGlaglen wiping away a tear, the group that sang it may have included some of The Sons of the Pioneers, Maureen O`Hara and John Wayne also acted in the film.
I was reading an article on Maureen O`Hara in one of the Dublin Sunday papers, she is now 83 years old and in sound health.

Aye Jimmy only in the wee sick six would such a lovely song been censored.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: weerover
Date: 09 Mar 04 - 01:17 AM

Jimmy C,

I heard the story about the riot in Belfast; my old man also claims that there were further riots when it showed in Derry because the song had been cut!

wr.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: GUEST,andytown
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 05:35 AM

Hi there,the movie was not "She wore a yellow ribbon",but another in that cavalry genre, "Rio Grande"or something like that.I know there is a second "Grande" movie so it gets confusing.I saw a colourized version of the movie containing the song a few years back.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Big Tim
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 06:27 AM

Delia Murphy first recorded the song in September 1938, according to her biographer Aidan O'Hara.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Big Tim
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 06:29 AM

PS, the song's original title was "Down by the Glenside".

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 07:54 AM

There's a version sung by Brendan Behan as well. It's on a CD called Brendan Behan Sings Irish Folksongs & Ballads. He was performing live, and breaks off every now and again to explain references: "The Fenians, by the way, were an Irish revolutionary group, formed in New York, of all places..."

He has other nice songs on it - a beautiful version of The Coolin (An Chúlfhionn), his own The Old Triangle, Preab san Ól, etc.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 09:51 AM

Not Rio Grande, but one in the Yellow Ribbon series, probably Fort Apache. For those of you familiar with the French "wild west" cartoon character Lucky Luke, that is parodied in either the 20e de cavalerie or Canyon Apache, probably the latter.

Subject: Lyr Add: BOLD FENIAN MEN
From: Big Mick
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:02 AM

I have only ever known this song as either “Down by the Glenside” or “Glory O to the Bold Fenian Men”. The song, “BOLD FENIAN MEN” (probably written by William Rooney according to Soodlums), as I have known it is as follows:

See who comes over the red blossomed heather,
Their green banners kissing the pure mountain air,
Heads erect, eyes to front, stepping proudly together.
Sure freedom sits enthroned on each proud spirit there.
Down the hills twining, their blessed steel shining,
Like rivers of beauty that flow from each glen,
From mountain and valley, ‘tis liberty’s rally.
Out and make way for the bold Fenian men.

Our prayers and our tears they have scoffed and derided.
They’ve shut out God’s sunlight from spirit and mind.
Our foes were united and we were divided.
We met and they scattered our ranks to the wind.
But once more returning, within our veins burning,
The fires that illumined dark Aherlow Glen
We raise the old cry anew, slogan of Conn and Hugh,
“Out and make way for the bold Fenian men!”

We’ve men from the Nore, the Suir and the Shannon.
Let tyrants come forth. We’ll bring force against force.
Our pen is the sword and our voice is the cannon,
Rifle for rifle and horse against horse.
We’ve made the false Saxon yield many a red battlefield.
God on our side, we will triumph again.
Pay them back woe for woe. Give them back blow for blow.
Out and make way for the bold Fenian men!

Side by side for the cause have our forefathers battled,
When our hills never echoed the tread of a slave.
In many a field where the leaden hail rattled,
Through the red gap of glory, they marched to the grave;
And those who inherit their name and their spirit,
Will march ‘neath the banner of liberty then,
And all who love foreign law, native or Sassenach,
Must out and make way for the bold Fenian men.

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: ard mhacha
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:45 AM

Right you are Mick, but in Ireland people would still use that title " The bold Fenian men", when it is really "Down by the Glenside".

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Big Mick
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 11:52 AM

Thanks for clearing that up, Ard. At any rate, I enjoy singing both of these great songs.

All the best,

Mick

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Reiver 2
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 12:29 PM

Down by the Glenside was sung in the film Rio Grande, the third of John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy. It was sung by a group of troopers -- played by the Sons of the Pioneers with Stan Jones the lead singer --to John Wayne and his estranged wife, Maureen O'Hara, who was visiting the troop because their son had enlisted and had been assigned to his father's command. Maureen O'Hara was not in Fort Apache or She Wore a Yellow Ribbon -- the female leads in those films were, respectively, Shirley Temple and Joanne Dru. And, yes, tough old Irish sergeant Victor McLagan did wipe away a tear as the song was sung. I have all three films on video tapes and have watched each of them probably a dozen times.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Bold Fenian Men
From: Big Tim
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 02:00 PM

Michael Scanlan wrote that one Mick, in 1864.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: Big Mick
Date: 27 Oct 04 - 07:36 PM

I knew I should have checked your book first, BT. Thanks for the correction.

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: Big Tim
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 05:25 AM

Yea, Mick, so you should: it's good stuff! Soodlum is a great book for the songs, poor for background. I think someone just sat down and wrote the notes off the top of their head, in about half an hour. (btw, Soodlum was a Dublin street character named Healy,from Francis Street).

Mary O'Hara also did a great version of "Bold Fenian Men Down by the Glenside".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: GUEST,Reiver 2
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 12:26 PM

Slight correction. In my previous post on Down By the Glenside, the name of the film and the singers is correct, but in the scene I described they were singing "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" to John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara (whose character in Rio Grande was named Kathleen). Down By the Glenside was sung later in the movie to those two and a group of officers and was sung in honor of Gen. Sheridan (J. Carroll Naish). And Victor McLagan didn't brush away a tear... he first wiped his nose with a finger and then blew his nose into a bandana. My apologies for mixing up the two scenes. Moral of the story: Never put complete trust in the memory functions of a (nearly) 75 year old brain.

Reiver 2

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: ard mhacha
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 12:31 PM

Dead on Reiver, my oul mate across the road reckons he has viewed it so much, he has worn a hole in the Video, Ford was a master of the Western.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 01:01 PM

I have already stuck it in the old thread, but the lyrics posted by Big Mick were published as "The Fenian Men" by De Masran, NY, without date or attribution (1860s by printing decoration). American Memory.

From comments above by Big Tim and Big Mick, I take it the author was Michael Scanlan. Thanks for that.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: Big Tim
Date: 28 Oct 04 - 03:23 PM

Yes Michael Scanlan (c.1836-1917), from Co. Limerick, went to US as a teenager, also wrote "Limerick is Beautiful" (political version) and "The Jackets Green". Zimmerman gives date and place for "BFM" as Chicago, 1864. Any more info. on Scanlan would be much appreciated.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: emjay
Date: 25 Oct 07 - 08:32 PM

Just came across this old thread. I remember "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" in one of the movies, and I remember some Stan Jones songs in some of John Ford's westerns -- "Chuckawalla Swing," and another one, "Wagons west are rolling, out where winds are blowing," Another I can almost remember. Of course Stan Jones wrote Ghost Riders in the Sky, but I don't remember Stan Jones ever singing with the Sons of the Pioneers.
Ken Curtis, who was one of the Pioneers for a time, sang Wild Colonial Boy in the Quiet Man.
I went to those movies to hear the Sons of the Pioneers and to ogle Ben Johnson. That was a couple of hundred years ago, of course. A reviewer of the time wrote that the S of the P, sang "quasi cowboy songs, and contributed to the ennui." I had to consult a dictionary before I could disagree with the reviewer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Bold Fenian Men
From: GUEST,JTT
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 01:58 PM

I know this as:

Down by the glenside I met an old woman
A-plucking young nettles, nor saw she my coming
I listened awhile to the song she was humming,
"Glory-O, Glory-O to the bold Fenian men"

and so on.

I also know the other one - the two songs are very different; the first is a lament, the second a rousing march.