Subject: happy? - Oct 3 (Rapparee)
From:
Abby Sale
Date: 03 Oct 05 - 10:57 AM
Limerick: The Articles of Capitulation were signed 10/3/1691
High Shemus [James II] he has gone to France, and left his crown behind;
Ill luck be theirs, both day and night, put running in his mind!
Lord Lucan followed after, with his slashers brave and true,
And now the doleful keel is raised – "What will poor Ireland do?
"What must poor Ireland do?
Our luck," they say, "has gone to France – what can poor Ireland do?"
O! never fear for Ireland, for she has soldiers still;
For Rory's boys are in the wood, and Remy's on the hill.
And never has poor Ireland more loyal hearts than these--
May God be kind and good to them, the faithful Rapparees!
"The Irish Rapparees," Irish Minstrelsy, p.57; H. Halliday Sparling, 1899.
"Rapparees" were irregular Irish soldiers of 1688-92. They took to the hills, etc. after the Boyne battle and fought on as guerillas. In English law the term came to be synonymous with freebooter. (There's some discussion at Clicky)
Copyright © 2005, Abby Sale - all rights reserved
What are Happy's all about? See Clicky
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