Lyr Req: Erin Go Bragh alt version

Subject: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 12:58 PM

I am still trying to track down a version of this song which I heard at the Ceol multi media music museum in Dublin.

It is roughly the same as the old Scots song sung by Dick Gaughan which is in the DT but is set in London and I think there were two Irish boys being pushed about by a policeman before giving him what for in the name of Erin go Bragh.

This is the only mudcat nusical challenge I have not had answered in double quick time. Can anyone help?

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 02:12 PM

Is this it?

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 03:00 PM

No , that's as far as I can tell the original Glasgow song set in Edinburgh.

THe one in Ceol is similar but the narrator actually is Irish and its set in London, Picadilly Circus or somewhere similar

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: GUEST,Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 03:41 PM

Your previous thread on the subject is at Origins: Erin Go Bragh. Since you've started a new one without mentioning that, you must expect to get a fair few repeat answers from people who didn't see it first time around.

The best way to get the answer you want is to ask the right question; that needs to include everything you already know.

Most of the answers in the other thread were about unrelated songs that happened to include the common catch-phrase used as a title here; useful for elimination, but only if people know that the information is there and read it first.

It's unlikely, I think, that you'll get the answer you're looking for unless you provide more specific information (at least we now know which museum you were talking about. Who was the singer? Where was he or she recorded? When? By whom?) or unless someone else here has heard it from the same source; but you might possibly strike lucky if the recording has been published somewhere.

The best place to get more information would be the museum, I'd have thought. Unfortunately, the URL published for their website actually goes to an e-commerce shop.

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 06:52 PM

I don't know anything about it, only what I remember from listening as I went round about 4 years ago. The museum is I think more of a tourist entertainment than an academic resource.

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: Peace
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 07:07 PM

I looked at about five songs that include E go B and none are what you are looking for. To echo Malcolm, is there anymore you can dig out of your memory?

Subject: Lyr Add: ERIN GO BRAGH
From: Frank Maher
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 07:31 PM

In London one day as I walked up the street,
An impudent fellow I happened to meet.
He looked in me face and he gave me some jaw,
Sayin', "What took you over from Erin Go Bragh?"

I know you're a Paddy by the wink of your eye.
Your crimes and misconduct has forced you to fly.
You left your auld country for breaking the law,
And escaped from the gallows in Erin Go Bragh.

Oh, the blackcurrant stick that I held in me fist
Around his big body I gave it a twist.
I silenced his tongue with a clout in the jaw,
And showed him the game played in Erin Go Bragh.

They all gathered round like a flock of wild geese
To resist Irish Paddy for disturbing the peace.
We'll march him to prison for breaking the law,
This quarrelsome ruffian from Erin Go Bragh.

To the devil I'll pitch ye, ye pack of keelons?
For here comes Mike Brophy from Ballyknocklong
And me mother's first cousin Mick White from Portlaw
And big Paddy Kelly from Erin Go Bragh.

The scrimmage we had was delightful to see.
Good Lord, how we our shillelaghs with glee!
We lathered them well and we laughed at their law
And showed them the game played in Erin Go Bragh.

There may be a few mistakes here...my memory is at fault...not me:-)

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 08:29 PM

Now we're getting somewhere. Thanks, Frank.

Would that memory stretch to where you got it, what it was called, and what tune it was sung to?

As predicted, it's a form of the original Scottish song, with the action moved from Edinburgh to London as in the less successful broadside editions. When the narrator is changed from a Highlander mistaken for an Irishman (by a Scottish policeman) to a real Irishman, most of the original point of the story is lost, but the modifications here do provide an alternative rationale, even if the song becomes rather brutal in the process.

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: Frank Maher
Date: 23 Apr 05 - 11:21 PM

I had That Song on an Old 78 rpm Record about 60 Years ago...I played It a lot before It Died of a Broken whatever!!!
It was Sung and Played by an Irish Trio "The Flanagan Brothers" who were very Popular in the States in the 20s and 30s..As for the Tune,I can remember It well but It Don't remind Me of any other Tune
that I can think of!!It was Called Erin Go Bragh!!!

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 12:18 AM

In that case, the song seems to be available on a relatively recent compilation, The Tunes we Like to Play on Paddy's Day (Viva Voce 007, 1997). There's a useful review at http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/flanagan.htm, but it doesn't mention this particular song.

The Flanagan Brothers were an Irish-American vaudeville act. Their heyday was over by the early 1930s, but they evidently did a fair bit of recording. Robbie's description suggests that this isn't the version he heard, but it ought to be close. Whether it pre-dates the Flanagan set only the museum can say; it may have been learned from the 78, of course.

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: Frank Maher
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 01:14 PM

Here's another one I found in an Old Irish Song

ERIN-GO-BRAGH

Ye sons of Hibernia, howe'er low in station,
  Or where'er you be, come attend to my call;
Resist all attempts, and unshackle your nation,
  Old Ireland, I mean, or alas! she must fall.
With burdens so great, and her liberty sinking,
Its beauty nigh gone—on destruction it's brinking;
Then on, my brave boys, don't let stand idly thinking,
  While Ireland's our country, dear Erin-go-bragh.

Oh! Erin, my country, once happy and free,
  With pleasure I stood on thy once native shore;
But, alas! cruel fortune has turned foe to thee,
  Oh! Erin Mavourneen, thy case I deplore.
Bound down by a shackle that's linked by a snare,
By foes base and keen, who have filled thee with care;
Then on, my brave boys, we'll show we play fair,
  For Ireland's our country, dear Erin-go-bragh.

Oh! England, your taunts and your censures give o'er,
  And spite not that country that's equal to you;
But join hand in hand, each day and each hour,
  With Scotland, our friends—all to each other true.
United by friendship, we'll join in a band,
Determined to fight for our kings, laws and land;
Then on, my brave boys, we'll show we play fair,
  For Ireland's our country, dear Erin-go-bragh.

Subject: RE: Erin go Bragh alt version
From: RobbieWilson
Date: 24 Apr 05 - 03:08 PM

Thanks Frank, and Malcolm. That could well be the version played in Ceol. It was a scratchy old recording and could well have been 30's vaudeville. I will look out for the Flannagan bros when going through compilations.#Thanks again

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Erin Go Bragh alt version
From: GUEST,stvoid
Date: 07 Sep 11 - 04:13 PM

Ahh I've been looking for that version for years

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Erin Go Bragh alt version
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 08 Sep 11 - 04:41 AM

Hamish Imlach recorded a song about the 1916 Uprising titled Erin Go Bragh.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Erin Go Bragh alt version
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Sep 11 - 08:31 AM

To add to this old thread, the tune that the Flannagan Brothers used for Erin Go Bragh, as transcribed above on 23 Apr 05 - 07:31 PM by Frank Maher, was as I recall the same or very similar to the tune that - I think it was the McNulty family - used for the song "I don't care if I do".

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Erin Go Bragh alt version
From: clueless don
Date: 09 Sep 11 - 09:19 AM

I'm sorry - that message yesterday from "GUEST" was from me. I didn't realize that I had lost my cookie.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Erin Go Bragh alt version
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 11 - 09:44 AM

A strange and interesting song. I never understood why the Scotsman went by the name of Erin Go Bragh, in the fersion recorded by Dick Gaughan ("I come from Argyll in the hihghalnds so braw, but I ne'er took it ill being called Erin Go Bragh")