Lyr Req: Scarriff Martyrs

Subject: Lyr Add: MY OWN DEAR NATIVE LAND
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 05:06 PM

Gotcha,
Jim Carroll

MY OWN DEAR NATIVE LAND
(Traditional)

There's a dear little isle in the Western Ocean
An island of purity, holy and grand
Whose name fills its daughters and sons with emotion
When heard on the shores of a far distant land.
It's Ireland, God bless her, the birthplace of heroes
The home of the patriot, warrior and sage
Of bards and of chieftains whose names live in story
May they live forever on history's page.

cho: For I love every blade of grass, green on your mountain,
    Every leaf on your tree, every rock upon your strand
    I love your green hills and your murmuring fountains
    I love you, a cuisle, my own dear native land.


You once were a proud and a glorious nation
Your name and your fame were known all o'er the world
'Til misfortune came o'er you and sad desolation
And the emerald banner in slavery lay unfurled.
They tortured your children, despoiled your green bowers
They tried to exterminate you long, long ago
But the Irish are somehow like wild, creeping flowers
The faster you pluck them, the quicker they grow.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scarriff Martyrs
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 03:58 PM

Local singer/publican (West Clare, Ireland) Ollie Conway, used to sing it; he died a couple of years ago.
The name he had for it was 'Ireland, I Love You' but 'My Dear Native Land' would probably be right.
We have a recording of it somewhere; I'll look it out tomorrow - but if I don't manage to find it I'll try again in a weeks time when we come back from holiday (if nobody else comes up with it).
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scarriff Martyrs
From: GUEST,Ginny
Date: 11 Oct 10 - 12:16 AM

I just read your thread "Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs from 9/2005. My father used to sing an old Irish song years ago. I was wondering if you have any information about it. I don't know the name of the song but the lyrics were...

When will me countrymen learn to be gentlemen?
When weill they learn to be noble and true?...


They will soon let their friends and their Saxon foes know
That the Irish are just like the wild blooming flowers, the faster you pluck them, the thicker they grow.

The last line seems to be from "My Dear Native Land" The song my father sang seemed more like a rebellion song. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 02:35 PM

Well, I'll put that one on my wish list. Go raibh maith agat. I find discussions on the origins of place names and words in general fascinating.

B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 12:03 PM

Scholars disagree on the derivation of the Feakle place name.

Flanagan gives it as "tooth", referring to some natural feature of the landscape, maybe a rock or such.

Adrian Room gives the same derivation.

However, Seán Spellissy in his "A History of County Clare", Gill and Macmilla, 2003, says,

"Feakle may derive its name from Fia-Choill, "the deer wood". Or, Teampall na Fiathgail, "the temple of the rough grass, an early church".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 11:39 AM

I believe the Irish name is An Fhiacail(The Tooth), the setting for Brian Merriam's Midnight Court(Cúirt an Mheán Oíche). It is the largest parish in County Clare, Ireland. There are many variations.

B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Paul Burke
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 04:01 AM

Feakle? Is that spelt "Faecal" in the Irish version?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 02:13 AM

I am certain the wee terror has an astute Gandfather! I am well occupied with a recording of the Russell famuly of Clare. Can you recommend any histories in print about Clare, especially Feakle?


Brían

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 27 Sep 05 - 02:48 PM

Hi Brian. Got the CD today, I have only played it once, too busy grandchildminding!

Cyril uses the same tune as Christy Moore, tho it's heavily atmospheric through use of Irish pipes. Sleeve notes say that he learned the song from his father. The lyrics are standard too, only a few minor variations.                                             

I doubt that a hundred priests were there, but the men's bodies were conveyed in four horse-drawn hearses "through Ballyvanna to the top of Ogonnolloe Hill, through the winding turns of Raheen to Scarriff's bridge where Father John Clancy was waiting". (Scarriff is the correct spelling).

I hope to add some more when the wee terror is safely returned to Edinburgh!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 22 Sep 05 - 12:42 PM

Thanks a lot Tim. I suspect that soon my library will rival yours.

B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 22 Sep 05 - 02:25 AM

I have ordered Cyril's CD. Should be here within a day ot two: will let you know.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 21 Sep 05 - 05:25 PM

As I am gently slipping over the Hill, my memory recalls Cyril O'Donoghue's melody being very much like LONELY BANNA STRAND.

B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 21 Sep 05 - 03:35 PM

I just compared my hen-scratches of the verses I wrote down before I returned the CD and they with the version in The Christy Moore Song Book. Thank you for clarifying the date. Cyril O'Donoghue's version may have(in my fuddled memory) mentioned a mind-boggling number of clergy present.

Brían

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 18 Sep 05 - 10:52 AM

Ná habair é. Bhí mé ag caint le fear maith istigh dairbh ainm John. Is mór an stór é, freisin. There are as historically significant artifacts as yourself dwelling in wee spot of real estate.
B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 18 Sep 05 - 10:43 AM

Thanks Brían, I know Custy's, a treasure trove.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 18 Sep 05 - 09:59 AM

I found it at Custy's Traditional Music Shop, but it'a a little dear. I may purchase it myself later. I will check the verses I scrawled against Christy's version. It was my impression it departed from Ciryl's version.

B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 18 Sep 05 - 09:34 AM

I haven't heard Cyril's version. I just checked on Amazon, it's not available there: any idea where I could buy the album.

The version I posted above, I have never heard sung. I got the words from Co. Clare Libraries a few years back. They also gave me the lyrics of the CM version, pretty much as he sings it, including the wrong date.

The men were arrested in hiding at Williamstown [Big] House, Co. Clare (not Williamstown village in Co. Galway). Mike Egan, one of the murdered men, was employed there as a handy man and he hid the IRA men in one of the outhouses. Somebody informed the Tans, they approached the House from a boat on the Shannon, circumventing the IRA's lookout system. They took them down "by steamer on the lake" to the Lakeside Hotel in Ballina, not Killaloe. There they interrogated and tortured them. Just after midnight, 17 November 1920, they took them onto the Bridge across the Shannon and shot them. Each had at least 17 bullet wounds. The Tans said they were trying to escape.

Willamstown House was burned down the following year, tho part of it was salvaged and, last I heard, was being used as a place from which to hire pleasure boats on the Shannon. Like you I have visited the spot and seen the memorial on the Bridge.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 18 Sep 05 - 08:27 AM

Thank you, Big Tim! Does this version share the same air? I may have to get Cyril's CD when my budget it back under control because I believe his version is different from the others. Such is the processs of oral transmition and asdaptation.

Brían

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SCARRIFF MARTYRS
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 18 Sep 05 - 04:02 AM

The version in "One Voice" is almost identical to the one in the CM Songbook: both the usual seven verses. "Voice" changes the date from 4th to 12th [of November 1920]; both are wrong! The events began on 16 November 1920 and culminated just after midnight on 17 November, when the four men were shot in cold blood. Here is another, earlier? less polished version:

THE SCARRIFF MARTYRS (AUTHOT NOT KNOWN)

Irish martys you are many,
Since the Saxons trod our land,
Irish people you have suffered,
At the tyrants hand.

Who can emulate those heroes,
And their slaves seven hundred years,
Or who can tell of the cruel deaths,
Or prevent the flowing tears.

Of those we knew and cherished,
Have been lion's prey,
And lots of we who yesterday,
Are cold and stiff today.

Their death sad story,
Who can write,
Oh, Killaloe Bridge if you could only witness,
And answer to this tragic sight.

A cry to God for mercy,
And a cry for their souls to save,
And a rallying shot from the martys rang,
The work of English knaves.

It's foolness [foolishness?] who can forget,
It's cowardice who can name,
My God we will avenge them,
Ah, Scarriff martyrs, your blood has flown.

Young hearted brave Michael McMahon,
What can be said of you?
Fluent Irish speaker,
Character, noble and true.

Alfred Rodgers you were destined,
For a lovely cold land,
With an innocent face so dovely shone,
That soul so pure and grand.

And Egan you have done your part,
For the souls you fought to save,
Erin shall bless your efforts,
Remembered shall be your grave.

Remember indeed in Scarriff churchyard today,
Forgotten not by the Umbo race,
And Jehova [sic] will send through England,
A shock that will wake her,
And remember the night she shot our heroes,
On the bridge of Killaloe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Sep 05 - 12:01 PM

Wanna buy a book?
Found the Christy Moore ones....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Sep 05 - 11:58 AM

Whoops. My bad. Back to the drawing board.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 17 Sep 05 - 11:53 AM

Sorry for the confusion, Sorcha, The lyrics I am looking for are The Scariff Martyrs, although Nothing But a Child is a great song also.

B

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Sorcha
Date: 17 Sep 05 - 10:15 AM

Look at the next to last post in this thread by Sheye.

Subject: Lyr Req: Scariff Martyrs
From: Brían
Date: 17 Sep 05 - 12:54 AM

I heard this on the album Nothing But a Child by Cyril O'Donoghue. The Christy Moore Songbook version is not complete. I believe the correct version is in One Voice: My Life in Song
(Hodder & Stoughton, 2000). I just got back from the area which is as stunning as the song.

B