The Wearing of the Green

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"The Wearing of the Green" is an anonymously-penned Irish street ballad dating to 1798. The context of the song is the repression around the time of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Wearing a shamrock in the "caubeen" (hat) was a sign of rebellion and green was the colour of the Society of the United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary organisation. During the period, displaying revolutionary insignia was made punishable by hanging.

Contents

[edit] Lyrics

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One version of the song goes:

O Paddy dear, an' did ye hear the news that's goin' round?
The shamrock is by law forbid to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep, his colour can't be seen,
For there's a cruel law agin the wearin' o' the Green.

O I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand
And he asked 'How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?'
She's the most distressful country this world has yet to see
For they're hangin' men and women there for wearin' o' the green

And if the colour we must wear is England's cruel red,
Will serve to remind us of all the blood that she has shed,
So take the shamrock from your hat and cast it in the sod,
But never fear, 'twill take root there, though under foot 'tis trod


When law can stop the blades of grass from growin' as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer time, their colours dare not show,
Then I too will change the colour I wear in my caubeen,
But 'till that day, praise God, I'll stick to wearin' o' the green. [1]

Many versions of the lyrics exist.[2] The best-known version is by Dion Boucicault, adapted for his 1864 play Arragh na Pogue, or the Wicklow Wedding, set in County Wicklow during the 1798 rebellion.[3] In the second verse, Boucicault's version recounts an encounter between the singer and Napper Tandy, an Irish rebel leader exiled in France. In earlier versions of the ballad, [4][5], and the similar "Green Among the Cape",[6] it is Napoleon Bonaparte who asks how Ireland is.

Boucicault's addition of the third and last verse is in notable contrast to the middle verse, in advocating emigration to America rather staying in defiance. Boucicault himself fled to New York after leaving his wife for a young actress.

[edit] Recordings

Artists to have recorded the song include John McCormack (circa 1914), Judy Garland (1940), The Wolfe Tones (1985), and Orthodox Celts (1997)

[edit] Related songs

  • "Monto" makes reference to the song.
  • "The Orange And The Green" is sung to the same tune.
  • Another 1798 ballad also entitled "The Wearing of the Green" references the more famous song in its chorus:
Her faithful sons will ever sing "The Wearing of the Green"[7]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Template:Cite recording
  2. ^ Blaisdell, Robert (2002). Irish Verse: An Anthology. Courier Dover, p.84. ISBN 0486419142. 
  3. ^ Vance, Norman (2002). Irish Literature Since 1800. Pearson Education, pp.81–2. ISBN 0582494788. 
  4. ^ "The Ballad Poetry of Ireland" (1845-10-18). The Living Age: p.107. 
  5. ^ "Celtic Gossip" (April 1858). The Celt: p.94. 
  6. ^ a b Carpenter, Andrew (1998). Verse in English from Eighteenth-Century Ireland. Cork: Cork University Press, p.573. ISBN 1859181031. 
  7. ^ Hayes, Edward (1855). The Ballads of Ireland, 4th ed, New York: Fullarton, Vol I, p.271.