Lyr Req: Father McFadden

Subject: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: Wolfgang
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 12:22 PM

Has someone the lyrics to this song?

It starts "O come all you Roman Catholics" and tells the story how police inspector Martin was killed when he tried to arrest Father McFadden. It happened in Gweedore, Co. Donegal, in 1888/89.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 01:26 PM

Don't have the lyrics but the event happened in February 1889.

"The Sergeant's Lamentation", sequel to "Hackler from Grouse Hall", has this verse,

The [Irish National Land] League 'tis true, I did pursue, the priest, why should I spare,
Who broke the laws and was the cause of bloodshed everywhere,
But Martin's fall in Donegal will be avenged ere long,
When Balfour's shears get round his ears, he'll sing another song.

Father James McFadden's dates were 1842-1917. Balfour's shears = prison haircut.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: Wolfgang
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 01:54 PM

Tim,

when I heard the song I immediately thought that could be a song for a sequel to your book.

If no one has these lyrics I might try a transcription. Since it is a historical event with several reports available of the web that could help my listening.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 10 Apr 06 - 03:47 PM

Come in weerover.

Subject: Lyr Add: FATHER MCFADDEN
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 04:48 AM

FATHER MCFADDEN

Come all ye Roman Catholics and listen to my song,
And likewise pay attention and I'll not detain you long,
Concerning Father McFadden who lies in Lifford Jail,,
He was remanded there for trial, the court would grant no bail.

The day he was arrested was a Sunday after Mass,
It was Inspector Martin, the man who did arrest,
He caught the priest by the collar with a broadsword in his hand,
Says he, "Your are my prisoner, sir, and you must come along".

The congregation saw their priest arrested at the door,
And David being among the flock, he did one stone procure,
He stuck the stone into a sling and my the Lord's command,
He struck Inspector Martin on the ground where he did stand.

Some paling [fence] posts were used by those who fought for liberty,
Their priest they swore for to defend from landlord tyranny,
No cowardly inspector would take their hero away,
Their 'star and light' they would protect until their dying day.

The people then proceeded for to knock the villain down,
His henchman flew before them like the hare flees from the hound,
The goodly priest called "Order", but alas, 'twas all in vain,
The Inspector lay there lifeless on the ground where he was slain.

They put Martin on a stretcher and to barracks they did go,
To see them going along the road, it was a holy show,
The people groaned and booed at them, 'twas glorious for to tell,
And to see a sub-Inspector on a door going off to hell.

The Devil met them on the road, he took him by the hand,
Says he, "Inspector Martin, I've been waiting for you long,
You were a worthy officer, you did your duty well,
And now I'm going to promote you to the burning pits of Hell".

The Devil met them on the road, Lord Leitrim by his side,
Says he, "Inspector Martin, we will have a merry ride,
The flames they won't agree with you, your head is very sore,
You'll curse the day you did stray to a place they call Gweedore".

Adieu to Ballyshannon, will I never see you more,
And many's the happy day I spent along Bundoran's shore,
To my wife and little family, I bid a fond farewell,
And now I'm away and I'm bound to stay in the burning pits of hell.

I thought that I had the words somewhere, it just toook me a while to find them. The lyrics are reasonably historically accurate, except that Lord Leitrim (William Sydney Clements), a notorious Donegal landlord and all-round nasty type, was murdered in 1878 and the murder of Inspector Martin took place in 1889. Father McFadden was soon released but a number of men served prison sentences for their paart in the killing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 05:16 AM

Wait a minute - the verse is actually saying that Lord Leitrim went to hell and made pals with the Devil, which I've no doubt most people in Donegal would have believed at the time.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: weerover
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 06:42 AM

Tim,

Haven't been around here for a few days or I would have stuck in the lyrics earlier. Jimmy McBride's excellent wee book "The Flower of Dunnaff Hill" has this with the tune and some more historical background.

wr.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: Wolfgang
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 06:44 AM

Thanks a lot, Tim. I listened once more this morning and thought I could transcribe it fairly completely tonight. But I doubt I would have found out who the devil had by his side.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: weerover
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 06:47 AM

...and that should be "Dunaff". Wolfgang obviously has a recorded version: is it anyone we would know?

wr

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SHOOTING OF LORD LEITRIM
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 11 Apr 06 - 06:53 AM

THE SHOOTING OF LORD LEITRIM

'Twas in the month of April eighteen hundred and seventy-eight,
The morning of the second day, right well I mind the date,
When the great Earl of Leitrim, the tyrant of the day,
Left his home on Monavaughan on the banks of Mulroy Bay.

The tyrant he gave orders before he went away
That evictions should be forced at once without any more delay.
His bailiffs they should get to work, as you might understand,
To banish us poor Catholics from our dear native land.

The morning it being calm and clear, the birds did sweetly sing.
Among the woods and heath-clad hills, they made the valleys ring.
As Leitrim and his party were driving at full trot,
On entering into Cratlagh wood, they received a dreadful shock.

The driver, Charles Buchanan, a boy from Milford Town,
Was thrown off the dicky and left sprawling on the ground.
May the Lord have mercy on his soul! Poor boy, he suffered sore,
Till death did end his suffering on the banks of Mulroy shore.

The tyrant's clerk, Jim Meegan, a young man tall and stout,
An inch of lead he did receive, which made him wheel about.
He called aloud unto Kincaid, a hireling under pay,
"I'm shot, I'm shot, dear Willie, on the banks of Mulroy Bay".

The cruel exterminator, the vile lord of the estate,
He did receive more slugs of lead, which were hard to masticate.
His lifeless corpse lay on the road, I hear the people say,
And no one came to mourn for him on the banks of Mulroy Bay.

A Commemorative Cross in Kindrum is inscribed, "Erected to the memory of the three Fanad patriots, Neil Shiels, Michael Heraghty, and Michael McElwee, who by their heroism in Cratlagh wood on the morning of April 2nd 1878 ended the tyranny of Landlordism".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: Wolfgang
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 12:48 PM

Wolfgang obviously has a recorded version: is it anyone we would know?

WR, probably not, for it is not easy to get. Christy Moore's first ever LP, 'Paddy on the road', has this song on it. Christy obviously doesn't like what he did then for this LP never has been made into a CD or reprinted ('printed' may be the wrong word for an LP). I can understand him, for if I would only know that recording I'd say "Young man, give up singing you're not really good at that" and how wrong would I have been with such an assessment.

I may have a chance to listen to him later this year in Germany. He's the one (of the living singers) I'd love to hear most (with the possible exception of Dick Gaughan).

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Father McFadden
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 13 Apr 06 - 01:02 PM

Thanks Wolfgang, that's fascinating, in line with my own thinking re CM: sadly some of his early stuff has never been re-issued.

I should say that I got the lyrics from weerover a few years ago.