Dunlavin Green
| "Dunlavin Green" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Genre | Irish folk |
| Writer | Traditional |
Dunlavin Green is an Irish ballad referring to the Dunlavin Green executions in 1798 of 36 suspected rebels.[1]
Lyrics
- In the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety eight
- A sorrowful tale the truth unto you I'll relate
- Of thirty-six heroes to the world were left to be seen
- By a false information were shot on Dunlavin Green
- Bad luck to you Saunders, for you did their lives betray
- You said a parade would be held on that very day
- Our drums they did rattle - our fifes they did sweetly play
- Surrounded we were and privately marched away
- Quite easy they led us like prisoners through the town
- To be shot on the plain, we first were forced to kneel down
- Such grief and such sorrow were never before there seen
- When the blood ran in streams down the dykes of Dunlavin Green
- There is young Matty Farrell who has plenty of cause to complain
- Likewise the two Duffys who were also shot down upon the plain
- And young Andy Ryan, his mother distracted will run
- For the loss of her darling, her only beloved son
- Bad luck to you, Saunders, may bad luck never you shun!
- That the widow's curse may melt you like the snow in the sun
- The cries of the orphans their murmurs you cannot screen
- For the murder of their fathers on Dunlavin Green
- Some of our boys to the hills they are going away
- Some of them are shot and some of them going to sea
- Mickey Dwyer in the mountains to Saunders he owes a spleen
- For loss of his brothers who were shot on Dunlavin Green
- In the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety eight
- A sorrowful tale the truth unto you I'll relate
- Of thirty-six heroes to the world were left to be seen
- By a false information were shot on Dunlavin Green
Notable recordings
- 1956 – Patrick Galvin – Irish Songs of Resistance Part I
- 1975 - Gay Woods and Terry Woods - Backwoods
- 1975 – Paddy Mahone – Irish Rebellion Album
- 1978 - Christy Moore - The Iron Behind the Velvet
- 1986 – Joe Burke – Happy to Meet and Sorry to Part
- 1998 – Dolores Keane – Night Owl
- 2008 – Karan Casey – Ships in the Forest
See also
References
- ↑ Fitzpatrick, William John (1866). "The Rebellion in Wicklow - Fusilade in Dunlavin, pp. 308-310". The 'sham squire' and the informers of 1798. Retrieved 5 September 2008.