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19 Nov 06 - 07:01 PM (#1888569) Subject: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: GUEST,JTT "They shot them in pairs, coming up the stairs Seán Treacy and Dan Breen" What *is* that song? |
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19 Nov 06 - 07:14 PM (#1888578) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: Peace December 19, 1919. |
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19 Nov 06 - 07:16 PM (#1888582) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: Peace Sorry. I am gonna look for stuff about Seán Treacy and Dan Breen and try a search that way. No luck Googling the lyrics. |
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19 Nov 06 - 07:20 PM (#1888586) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: Peace "The first major confrontation between the volunteers and the British forces took place at Soloheadbeg in Tipperary on 1st January 1919 when Dan Breen and Sean Treacy attacked an explosives convoy. Two policemen were killed. This signalled the start of a guerrilla war that was to last until the Truce in 1921." |
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19 Nov 06 - 07:23 PM (#1888587) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: Fergie I have them somewhere, I will search my collection of lyrics over the next few days and if I find them I will post Fergus |
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19 Nov 06 - 07:25 PM (#1888588) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: GUEST,JTT Yes, yes, but *what was the song*? The unfortunate coppers - one was 56 and a father of 7 from Mayo; the other was a single man in his 30s. How one could wish that the people whose deaths allow freedom to be won could be cyphers. |
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19 Nov 06 - 07:54 PM (#1888614) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: GUEST,JTT Though actually, come to think of it, the Soloheadbeg ambush wasn't an indoor gig, it was the capture of gelegnite being brought by horse and cart to a quarry. So the "shot them in pairs" song scarcely refers to that - or, indeed, to the freeing of one of the Soloheadbeg ambushers from their captors, which was on a train. |
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19 Nov 06 - 09:08 PM (#1888649) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen From: McGrath of Harlow I've never heard the song - but I'd be pretty sure it'd be about "the Drumcondra Fight", the time Dan Breen and Sean Tracy were cornered in a house they were sleeping and shot their way out. There's a full account of it in "Dan Breen's Book" (aka "My Fight for Irish Freedom"). October 12th 1920. |
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20 Nov 06 - 07:59 AM (#1888845) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT Yes, probably - it's well described in Joe Ambrose's excellent new biography of Breen. But it's the song I'm after, if anyone has it. Driving me cracked. |
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20 Nov 06 - 08:31 AM (#1888868) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,Philippa for what it's worth, there are some songs about Treacy and Breen already "published" in Mudcat: "Ashtown Road" and "Galtee Mountain Boy" |
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20 Nov 06 - 11:28 AM (#1888981) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh I think the two lines that were quoted occur in Brendan Behan's "Borstal Boy", and may be a variant of one of the songs about Treacy (tho' I don't think DB is actually mentioned by BB, but it's a long time since I read it). In addition to the two songs instanced by Philippa, there's one which Dominic Behan sang, which goes something like this. It's a bit raw, but then so's the Galtee Mountain-Boy. "Fetch me a Parabellum and a couple-hundred shells; Lead me to the 'Murder Gang' and we'll blow them all to Hell; For just today I heard them say how Treacy met defeat, How lovely Sean is dead and gone, shot down in Talbot Street. [some verse here about how Treacy was surrounded, of which I can only recall the line about "his comrade with him slept"] "They took the front, they took the back, they were all around the place; Waiting for the word 'Attack', to set the house ablaze; But how those English soldiers paled when out into the night Sean sent a deadly stream of lead, challenging them to fight; 'Come on!' he cried, 'and show your hand; you've boasted for so long How you could crush this lovely land with your army great and strong Come, show this mettle which you say has made the whole World reel, And ere there dawns another day, I'll show Tipperary steel' He fought them off as best he could, outnumbered ten to one; He spilt a bath of English blood before his race was run; 'No Surrender!' was his cry, and ever 'No Retreat' Said Treacy brave, before he died, shot down in Talbot Street. The Parabellum repeater seems to have been particularly favoured by the Volunteers of the time, judging by a number of photographs. The "Murder Gang" was based in Dublin Castle (and targetted, literally, by Collins). Evidently "No Surrender" should not be confined to Derry and/or the Rev I.P. |
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20 Nov 06 - 11:39 AM (#1888989) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Snuffy Wild colonial boys were into "No Surrender" too, I seem to recall. |
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20 Nov 06 - 02:57 PM (#1889137) Subject: Lyr Add: TIPPERARY SO FAR AWAY From: McGrath of Harlow Here's perhaps the most widely sung Sean Treacy song (in Tipperary anyway)- TIPPERARY SO FAR AWAY The [G] sun had set with it`s [D] golden rays And the [C] bitter [D] fight was [G] over Our [D] brave boys sleep [C] beneath the [D] clay, On [G] this earth they [C] are no [D] more The moon shone over the [C] battle[D]field Where a [G] dying [C] rebel [D] lay His [G] arms were crossed and his [D] body stretched, His [C] life blood [D] flowed [G] away There were none to weep for you Sean Treacy Or were keening to sing in your praise To decide your deeds like the Gaels of yore On your face we no longer gaze In that kingdom of love may your dear soul rest On the word that we fervently pray That we`ll all meet above the old friends we love In Tipperary so far away The soldiers of Erin bore him high On their shoulders, they solemnly tread And many a heart with a tearful sigh Wept over our patriot dead In silence they lowered him into the grave To rest till his reckoning day Sean Treacy who died, his home to save In Tipperary so far away |
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20 Nov 06 - 06:55 PM (#1889389) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Snuffy Plenty more Sean Treacy songs here |
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20 Nov 06 - 07:13 PM (#1889408) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT Saw the misspelled plaque commemorating Sean Treacy (or as the plaque claims, Tracey - they've mixed him up with another Tipp officer) in Talbot Street today. Everyone I ask remembers the two lines, and no one can remember the whole song... yet.... I place my faith in Mudcat... |
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20 Nov 06 - 09:27 PM (#1889522) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Peace "How will Faader Mattew stick-it? You're only a curate, Father But 'tis you haves de balls of a cannon, You remember young Peter O'Loughlin of course? Turned popish himself an' forsook the auld cause. Den dey shot 'em in pairs goin' up de stairs, And dey shot 'em in fours leppin' over half-doors, Seán Treacy and Dan Breen, And you, lovely Molly Derosa, Many miles from Spancil Hill." from http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:SwfArA55eOEJ:www.medicineweekly.ie/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D540 |
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20 Nov 06 - 09:28 PM (#1889523) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Peace Heck knows if that's a help or no, but it was found with a goole of up the stairs, shot, pairs, breen with NO quotation marks. |
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21 Nov 06 - 04:42 AM (#1889689) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT Heh, Peace, that's a conglomerate of half a dozen different songs, from The Boys of Fair Hill to Spancil Hill to The Mountains of Mourne! |
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21 Nov 06 - 09:28 AM (#1889845) Subject: Lyr Add: SEAN TREACY (from The Wolfe Tones) From: GUEST,decky02 The song here is taken from album called "Rifles of the I.R.A." {1969} by "Wolfe Tones" SEAN TREACY The moon it shone down on Dublin town When the deadly fight was o'er Thousands lay on the cold, cold ground Their lives to claim no more The moon it shone down in old O'Connell Street Where a dying young rebel lay With his body gashed and his arms out-stretched And his life's blood flowing away A passing comrade soon heard the moans The sufferer soon they found Softly, gently they raised his head Up from the cold, cold ground Softly, gently come raised he cry No longer on earth can I stay I will never more roam to my own native home In Tipperary so far away A lock of my hair I pray you take To my mother so dear to me And tell her 'twas here by the Liffey side My mouldering bones do lay For it would grieve your heart To see young men shot down, Their bodies thrown into the sea And a vision of light came before tonight Of Tipperary so far away The soldiers of Ireland bore him on high On their shoulders with salom thread And many a heart with tearful sigh Wept over our patriot dead In silence they lowered him into the grave To rest to the reckon day Sean Treacy who died his home to save In Tipperary so far away |
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21 Nov 06 - 09:35 AM (#1889852) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT Pretty dreadful song - the rhyme scheme alone is enough to kill Tans. But alas still not the one I'm after. |
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21 Nov 06 - 02:31 PM (#1890090) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh "Peace" also includes a line from "The Ould Orange Flute"! And notice the variants of "Tipperary so far away"; to which I'll add another verse, similar in places; "There were none to weep for you, Sean astoir, As ypu lay on the ground; Your comrades knew you were on your own, As you [or, "they"?] warily looked around; "Lift me gently," you whispered, "No longer on Earth can I stay, For I'll never more roam to my own native home, T. so far away" And, "Our soldiers in silent ambush lay, when the evening sky was clear, Yet not one man was there afraid, Our brave boys knew no fear; Ye people in the city streets, do you hear the fierce affray Of that valiant youth whose home is set In T. so far away". The version in the "wolfe Tones" record cited seems incredibly garbled, unless someone were drunk when posting (it happens). Just to put things a little straighter, the last verse should be: "The soldiers of Ireland bore him high on their shoulders, with solemn tread; And many a heart with a tearful sigh wept for our patriot dead; In silence they lowered him into the grave, to wait for the Reckoning Day, Sean Treacy, who died his home to save, in T. so far away". True enough about rhyme-scheme and metre too, if one insist upon strict scansion. But no less an authority on song-making than Robert Burns, in one of his "Commonplace Books" (early 1780s), compared two versions of "The Mill, Mill-o", one a "polite" version from Ramsay's "Tea-Table Miscellany", the other what we might call the Trad. or Folk version, first with regard to reading them as poetry (the Trad one "halts [limps] prodigiously out of measure") but then by singing them to the air. Remember that one syllable (when read, as poetry) may be sung to several notes. |
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22 Nov 06 - 05:50 AM (#1890569) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT Well, the lines you quote sound much better verse, a Bhuachaill. |
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22 Nov 06 - 05:32 PM (#1891120) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,beachcomber I seem to have a memory of those two lines in a song called "The Valley of Knockanure". But I don't think the song was about Breen or Tracey ? |
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22 Nov 06 - 07:00 PM (#1891214) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT It seems not |
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23 Nov 06 - 09:58 AM (#1891682) Subject: Lyr Add: SEAN TREACY (J. Crofts) From: GUEST,JTT And another one, but not the right one yet: Seán Treacy by J. Crofts We often heard our fathers tell How in the Fenian times The noblest of Tipperary's sons Imprisoned spent their lives. Those tales we can hear daily, And the deeds of valiant men, As the war goes on unceasingly Through valley, hill and glen. They searched for Seán at midnight; His comrade with him slept. Macready's murdering bloodhounds In silence on them crept. Our heroes fought as brave men should And made a gallant fight; With bullets foul they did conclude The lives of Smith and White. In a crowded Dublin Street Seán died On a dim October day; The story will be told with pride While men in Erin stay. With trusty gun held in his hand, Two sleuth hounds he laid low: 'Twas well they knew this island through They had no brave foe. When the British saw the battle They shook with fear and dread A machine gun then did rattle And our hero bold lay dead. Seán Treacy killed! Seán Treacy killed! Was borne along the breeze. No bells were rung; no caoin was sung; He died for Ireland free. While grass grows green in Erin We'll think of you, brave Seán! We'll sing your praise o'er hill and vale When grief and gloom are gone. And when the dawn of Freedom's sun Shines out in Erin's skies, In our Gaelic tongue we'll tell our sons How brave Seán Treacy died. |
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23 Nov 06 - 09:59 AM (#1891683) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: MartinRyan I learned that last one at about the age of 5! I don't suppose I've song it since I was about 10 - but the words still come to me. Regards |
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24 Nov 06 - 12:01 PM (#1892542) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT Was talking to someone today who said that the lines I quote are all there is, and that it was an add-on - usually sung in drink - to The Valley of Knockanure. |
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24 Nov 06 - 10:23 PM (#1892893) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Nickhere I wonder if the song you're thinking of is the "Ballad of Knocklong"? It doesn't say anything about in pairs up the stairs as far as I can remember, but it was about the rescue of Sean Hogan from the RIC by Dan Breen and Sean Treacy at Knocklong train station in Tipperary in 1919. I have only heard it sung once, by an IRA veteran who was 103 when I met him, so it was quite hard to make out most of the lyrics. "The evening it was falling As at last the train sped in ...... Dan Breen and ... ...Our courageus heroes It did not take them long And the rifles echoed true at the station of Knocklong Oh King George's pampered hirelings ........ But the bravest deed of all And it did not take them long Was the rescue of Sean Hogan at the station of Knocklong" I wish I could provide more lyrics but I could only catch fragments from the tape I made. Maybe these lyrics will help you to get a fuller version of the song from someone else. |
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26 Nov 06 - 05:45 AM (#1893780) Subject: Lyr Add: KNOCKLONG (Gabriel Fitzmaurice) From: GUEST,JTT There's a website about it here, Nickhere: http://www.knocklong-rescue.com/ And I think this is the poem you're seeking: http://homepage.eircom.net/~abardubh/poetry/bearla/poem178.html A little bit of Culture Posted by Bren Vaughan December 17 1999 Knocklong Gabriel Fitzmaurice Oh, take me through the byroads To those places named in song Along the road less travelled Is the station of Knocklong Where shots rang out for freedom In nineteen and nineteen With young Sean Hogan rescued By Sean Treacy and Dan Breen. As I drive to Tipperary I recall the lore, The War of Independence - Here I park my car On a road become a songline And walk into the song The Rescue of Sean Hogan At the Station of Knocklong. The station's now deserted, Blocked up, overgrown But not the gallous story, An empire overthrown, But I am overtaken By the traffic on the road Who hoot at this obstruction, The progress I have slowed. And so I take the burden Of History and drive Into Tipperary Where I see their Ireland thrive, But I'm glad I took the byroad That lead me into song Many roads to Tipperary But only one to Knocklong. |
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26 Nov 06 - 06:28 AM (#1893809) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT By the way, in case you're interested in looking at what the people involved looked like, here's Sean Treacy: http://www.helensfamilytrees.com/images/2dd00.JPG and Dan Breen: http://www.joeambrose.net/gall.php?blowup=91 |
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09 Dec 06 - 04:39 AM (#1904295) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,Fitzy They shot them in pairs going up the stairs, Their like it was never seen. They shot them in fours lepping over half-doors, Sean Treacy and Dan Breen. |
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13 Dec 06 - 04:44 AM (#1908171) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT Ní bheidh a leithéadh arís ann... |
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05 Mar 07 - 08:30 PM (#1987610) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST My great Aunt Brenda's parlor piece was "The Rescue of Sean Hogan at the Station at Knocklong." She once shocked some of my college friends by ending her rendition with a sweet voiced brief description of the "lovely dead British soldiers." I wish we had recorded her singing it. If anyone has any info on a recording or on the lyrics we would love to be able to preserve this bit of our family heritage. My mom was Bridget Cotter, she and her aunts from the McCann family lived in Knocklong. |
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06 Mar 07 - 12:07 PM (#1988284) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Big Tim The sought song is called 'Sean Treacy' and was written by Dominic Behan. I have a recording of it, tho I've never seen the song in print and, annoyingly, can't make out one or two words. |
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07 Mar 07 - 03:15 AM (#1989136) Subject: Lyr Add: SÉAN TREACY (Dominic Behan) From: Big Tim SÉAN TREACY by Dominic Behan Give me a Parabellum and a bandoleer of shells, I'll wait in ambush for some men and I'll blow them all to hell, For just today, I heard them say that Treacy met defeat, Our lovely Séan is dead and gone, shot down in Talbot Street. They were at the front and at the back; they were all around the place. None of them anxious to attack; or meet him face to face. Lloyd George did say, 'You'll get your pay - and a holiday most complete', But none of them knew what they would go through, in that house in Talbot Street. When he saw them in their Crossley trucks, like the fox inside his lair, Séan waited for to size them up before he did emerge, With blazing guns he met the Huns, and forced them to retreat, He shot them in pairs coming down the stairs, in that house in Talbot Street. 'Come on', he cried, 'Come show your hand, you have boasted for so long, How you would crush this rebel band with your armies great and strong'. 'No surrender', was his war cry, 'Fight on lads, no retreat' Brave Treacy cried before he died, shot down in Talbot Street. 14 October 1920 found Séan Treacy, the quintessential Republican soldier of the War of Independence, in a shop (not a 'house' as in the song) at 94 Talbot Street, off O'Connell Street. He had gone there to talk over the Breen-in-hospital situation with fellow IRA Officer, Dick McKee, who would be murdered in prison on 21 November 1920 (in retaliation for 'Bloody Sunday'). The shop, defiantly named, 'The Republican Outfitters', was a known hub of IRA activity, owned by Peadar Clancy, who was murdered along with McKee. The shop was under constant surveillance and having no back door was a virtual death trap. It was probably the last place in Ireland that Séan Treacy should have gone anywhere near. About four o'clock in the afternoon, two lorries ('Crossley trucks') full of soldiers and Auxiliaries came hurtling along Talbot Street. A quick warning was shouted: Dick McKee managed to get away, but for Treacy there was no escape. He dashed onto the street and grabbed a bicycle. However, the few seconds that it took him to adjust the saddle height of the unfamiliar machine probably cost him his life. The soldiers swept the street with machine gun fire, killing two pedestrians. Treacy managed to get fire a few shots, killing two soldiers, before he himself went down in a hail of bullets. As he lay on the street, a British soldier stood over his body and said, "He was a fine looking man. What a pity to see him dead". The body of twenty-five year-old Séan Treacy was carried home to 'Tipperary so far away' and buried in Kilfeakle churchyard. He had planned to marry his fiancée Mai Quigley eleven days later. Dan Breen survived and lived for another 48 years. |
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07 Mar 07 - 06:04 PM (#1989981) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Big Al Whittle great song! |
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08 Mar 07 - 12:35 PM (#1990611) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,sean What's the tune of this song ? has it an original tune , Who recorded it ? |
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17 Mar 07 - 10:21 AM (#1999472) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh Yo, Big Tim: for another set of the words you posted, see my posting of 20th November 2006, above: I got these from a record by Dominic Behan, so perhaps you'll be able to make out a few more words. |
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15 Jun 09 - 05:11 AM (#2656718) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,Celtic Chuck Dominc Behans version is on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNkD3oJczuk |
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09 Dec 09 - 09:38 AM (#2784579) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,JTT I think the Dominic Behan version starts "Give me a Parabellum and a couple of hundred shells; take me to the Murder Gang and we'll blow them all to hell". (The Murder Gang were the British assassins who were themselves assassinated by Michael Collins's Squad, aka The Twelve Apostles.) Incidentally, the meeting in the Republican Outfitters was not actually to talk about Breen, but had been arranged before the Church Avenue ambush in the house of Prof Carolan which wounded both Treacy and Breen - it was a meeting to set up the Flying Columns in Tipperary. As stated by Big Tim, Clancy and McKee were murdered after Treacy's killing by the same Murder Gang. |
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30 Aug 10 - 06:27 PM (#2976260) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST May Quigley, my grandmother died and just by coincidence was buried in Kilfeacle in the same graveyard. She loved my grandfather, but I believe was never in love again after Sean. |
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08 Aug 11 - 11:04 AM (#3203890) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,Diarmuid Thanks so much for all the contributions about the song and related matters. The "shot them in pairs, coming down the stairs" is strange, although Tracy had shot two British soldiers. Perhaps it's a way of conveying that he shot them on his way out of the shop, or it is a conscious or unconscious reference to the amazing adventure of the raid on Professor O'Carolan house in Drumcondra, when Treacey and Breen DID shoot them coming UP the stairs (and outside in the gardens too) (My Fight for Irish Freedom by Dan Breen). As for the Talbot Street event, with known and wanted men meeting in place under constant observation, and without even a back exit, it does seem that some of the IRA in Dublin got used to living dangerously and took risks they should not have. The irony is that Breen and perhaps Treacey were sent to Dublin from their areas of operation for a rest! Does anyone know the actual address in Talbot Street? It deserves a plaque if it hasn't already got one. |
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08 Aug 11 - 11:08 AM (#3203892) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST SORRY -- just saw it was 94 Talbot Street. Off now to check whether it has a plaque .... |
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08 Aug 11 - 12:24 PM (#3203947) Subject: Lyr Add: SEAN TREACY (Dominic Behan) From: GUEST Ok, saw a note posted that it has a plaque and also the wording, with inaccurate spelling of Treacy as Tracey. But I have checked out Dominic Behan singing of the song posted on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNkD3oJczuk which I have transcribed with my own punctuation. The verse about the start of the fight is different but very curiously, the "SHOT THEM IN PAIRS" LINES ARE COMPLETELY ABSENT: SEAN TREACY By Dominic Behan Give me a Parabellum and a couple of hundred shells. Lead me to the murder gang; we'll blow them all to hell. For just today, I heard them say how Treacy met defeat. Our lovely Séan is dead and gone, shot down in Talbot Street. They took the front and they took the back; they were all around the place, Waiting for the word "Attack" to set the house ablaze, Yet how those English soldiers paled when out into the night, Sean sent a stream of leaden hail, challenging them to fight. "Come on", he cried. "Come show your hand. You have boasted for so long How you would crush my lovely land with your army great and strong. Come show this mettle which you say can make the whole world reel, And ere there dawns another day, I'll show Tipperary steel!" He fought them all as best he could, outnumbered ten to one. He spilt a bath of English blood before his race was run. "No surrender" was his cry, and ever "no retreat", Said Treacy brave, before he died, shot down in Talbot Street. We need to find a published reference which can be verified as by Dominic to solve the puzzle of these lines (which, as I thought and as commented by at least one another, seems to refer to the Drumcondra Fight) |
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08 Aug 11 - 01:28 PM (#3203983) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,Diarmuid sorry yet again! I left a word out (sse it capitals) "Sean sent a stream of leaden HAIL, challenging them to fight." |
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14 Feb 18 - 12:58 PM (#3905710) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,YEAAAWA Behan was a writer. Brendan that is, from what i remember and I dont he mentions something about his families prowess and he could easily have plucked parts from songs our like could never hear. My guess is that it does not reference either by name but that behan himself used it to wind up the screws. Sorry bout the pun |
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27 Aug 18 - 04:21 AM (#3946443) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,Jesse Was just chatting to an Irish chap here in Tasmania and when I told him my name was Breen he came straight out off the top of his head with... "They shot them in pairs, coming up the stairs Seán Treacy and Dan Breen" I shall ask tomorrow if he knows the name of the song.. |
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27 Aug 18 - 06:44 AM (#3946472) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Thompson The "shot them in pairs" lines, and indeed the song, refer to the 12 October 1920 raid on Fernside, the house of John Carolan, Professor of Science and the Art of Teaching in the nearby St Patrick's [teacher] Training College, not to the Republican Outfitters. During that first raid, after Breen and Treacy had escaped, Professor Carolan was shoved up against the wall and the British soldiers shot him twice in the back of the neck, in their favourite execution style; he died some days later. The British and the British-aligned newspapers said he had been wounded during the firing… A British officer, Major GOS Smyth, who was a former RIC District Inspector, was shot dead during the gun-battle, another British officer, Captain AP Whyte, died later, and a third was injured. At the inquest "a member of the search party" describes threatening the dying Carolan to get the names of Breen and Treacy. Professor Carolan died on the 27th of October 1920. Meanwhile Sean Treacy was gunned down by a raiding party outside the Republican Outfitters on 14 October 1920, Peadar Clancy, Conor Clune and Dick McKee were "shot while attempting to escape" in Dublin Castle (ie tortured to death) on 20 November 1920, and on 21 November 1920 a group of British assassins brought to Ireland to kill Republicans were executed en masse by Michael Collins' '12 Apostles'. Another mass killing designed to kill all British agents in Ireland is said to have been planned but was overtaken by the Truce which began the end of the War of Independence. |
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28 Aug 18 - 04:26 AM (#3946643) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: GUEST,Jesse So the chap told me the song with those exact lyrics.. "They shot them in pairs, coming up the stairs Seán Treacy and Dan Breen" ... was a rhyme told frequently he knew as a kid growing up, not a song. It was only those lines nothing more. Could be why you can't remember anything more. Could be wrong though. Turns out my Grandfathers brother told my Dad he's a cousin of said Dan Breen. Unable to verify as he's passed on now though.. |
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29 Aug 18 - 04:07 PM (#3946962) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dan Breen (and Sean Treacy) From: Thompson I'm sure there are Breens living yet who could confirm the relationship. If Jesse's grandfather was in Ireland in 1901 or 1911 he might have been listed in the census; or you might find news of him in Dan Breen's book My Fight for Irish Freedom. |