The Wind That Shakes the Barley (song)

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The Wind That Shakes the Barley is an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1836-1883), a Limerick-born poet and professor of English literature. Its title was borrowed for the Ken Loach film which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.

[edit] Background

The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "croppy-holes", mass unmarked graves which slain rebels were thrown into, symbolising the regenerative nature of Irish resistance to British rule.

[edit] Lyrics

I sat within a valley green

Sat there with my true love

My fond heart strove to choose between

The old love and the new love

The old for her, the new that made

Me think on Ireland dearly

While soft the wind blew down the glade

And shook the golden barley

Twas hard the mournful words to frame

To break the ties that bound us

But harder still to bear the shame

Of foreign chains around us

And so I said, "The mountain glen

I'll seek at morning early

And join the brave United Men"

While soft winds shook the barley

Twas sad I kissed away her tears

Her arms around me clinging

When to my ears that fateful shot

Come out the wildwood ringing

The bullet pierced my true love's breast

In life's young spring so early

And there upon my breast she died

While soft winds shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream

And many's the summer blossom

I placed with branches soft and green

About her gore-stained bosom

I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse

Then rushed o'er vale and valley

My vengeance on the foe to wreak

While soft winds shook the barley

Twas blood for blood without remorse

I took at Oulart Hollow

I placed my true love's clay-cold corpse

Where mine full soon may follow

Around her grave I wander drear

Noon, night and morning early

With aching heart when e'er I hear

The wind that shakes the barley

• Lyrics and guitar chords

[edit] Cover versions

The song has been covered by many artists including The Chieftains, The Dubliners, The Celtic Rogues, Dolores Keane, Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance), Solas, The Clancy Brothers, Dick Gaughan, Orthodox Celts, Amanda Palmer, Fire + Ice, The Irish Rovers, Glow, Gallery, Sarah Jezebel Deva,Dead Can Dance and Martin Carthy.

A poem by the same name was published by Katharine Tynan.

It was featured in the 2006 Irish award winning film The Wind That Shakes the Barley during the scene of a wake.