The Irish Volunteer
On first hearing "The Irish Volunteer" many will recognize the melody of "The Bonnie Blue Flag", a rousing Rebel anthem written in 1861 by Harry McCarthy to the tune of "The Irish Jaunting Car". Adding new words to old music was a common 19th century practice, and New York music hall performer and songwriter Joe English recaptured the melody for the Union and the Irish Brigade.
Like many Irish songs of the war, "The Irish Volunteer", probably written in early 1862, celebrates Irish resistance to Britain as well as the cause of the Union, and Tim McDonald proudly recalls the 1798 battle of Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy, Ireland, and Colonel Michael Corcoran's defiance of an order to parade his 69th Militia for the Prince of Wales in October 1860. McDonald also celebrates his commanders, General Meagher and Colonel Robert Nugent of the 69th New York Volunteers, whose battle flags, "Erin's (Ireland's] Harp and the Starry Flag..." would lead the way in many a desperate struggle.
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Boys that wore the green
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"Boys that wore green" recounts the fight of Colonel Corcoran's 69th Militia at Bull Run, the first major battle of the Civil War. The lyrics, sung to the tune of Robert Burns' "John Anderson My Jo", praises the "gallant New York firemen" of Colonel Noah L. Farnham's 11th New York "Fire Zouaves" and Captain Meagher, who led the "Irish Zouaves" of the 69th's Company K. During the battle, the 69th lost its flag, which was recaptured by the Fire Zouaves. Although the men of the 69th acquitted themseleves as well as, if not better than, any other Union outfit, their Bull Run losses were heavy and included acting Lieutenant Colonel James Haggerty killed in action, along with 101 other men killed, wounded and missing. Colonel Corcoran ended the fight a prisoner of the Confederates.
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Opinions of Paddy Magee
"The opinions of Paddy Magee", which uses the music of the jig "Paddy O'Carrol", (a melody at least a half century old by 1861) sets forth the principal argument Thomas Francis Meagher used to rally Irishmen to the Union cause - to repay America for its assistance to refugees from the great famine of the 1840s.
"Paddy" is also aware of British support of the South, which inspired many Fenians (members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's (IRB) American branch) to join the Union army, and delights in "Columbia" the political cartoonists' female symbol of America, "defying the bould British Lion". He brings "musket to showlder" for his new country, merging his own anti-British attitude with that of such noted Americans as George Washington, who "slathered the Tories" and General Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson, who defeated the Britisch at New Orleans in 1815.
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The boys of the Irish Brigade
A pre-war song, "The boys of the Irish Brigade" compares the men of the French Army's Irish Bridgade, soldiers sent to France by James II - a Catholic British king supported by the Irish, in 1688 - to the heroes of the Trojan War. The brigade's "Wild Geese" defeated the British Guards Brigade at Fontenoy in 1746, and Thomas Francis Meagher evoked its proud traditions with his Bull Run battle cry of "Remember Fontenoy". The song was found in Samuel Lover's 1860 Book of Irish Songs, and was the only one on this album for which a melody was not specified by the writer, a "Mrs. Gore". The tune selected, which fits the song as if written for it, is "My Lodging is on the Cold Ground", a melody also used with Thomas Moore's "Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms".
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Paddy's Lamentation
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Set to a traditional air, "Paddy's Lamentation" reflects a growing anti-war sentiment among the Irish as the conflict dragged on and casualties increased. Impoverished New York City Irishmen viewed the war as a "poor man's fight" and rioted against conscription in July 1863. Irish priests, fearing depopulation of their parishes, denounced emigration from their pulpits. Irish newspapers carried horror stories depicting the fate of Irish soldiers in the Union army, and accused General Meagher of complicity in a Yankee plot to slaughter Irishmen. Although IRB founding member Jermeiah O'Donovan Rossa denounced these accounts as "a landlord English lie", a growing number of Fenians viewed the heavy casualties among their membership with alarm. Even with Paddy's admonition to stay at home, however, young Irishmen kept coming to America - and enlisting. One who wrote home that he was not "forced to list up", joned the army for a $700 bounty (ten years salary in Ireland) the day he landed in New York.
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The Irish Volunteer (nr. 2)
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"The Irish Volunteer (Nr.2)" much less jaunty than the previous song of the same name, is a classic ballad of a soldier leaving his love tro go off to war. As in many other Irish American Civil War songs, the singer explains that he must fight for the Union, for "the land that has bess'd us... is smitten with peril". In return, he hopes America will return the favor by liberating Ireland from "British oppression...." Although written for the Irish-American market, J.P. Webster's melody with words by S. Fillmore Bennet is not Irish, but in the genre of Victorian era parlor music. It is performed as written and arranged for four part vocal harmony. The song's Chicago publication suggests that it may have been written for Colonel James A. Mulligan's "Illinois Irish Brigade" (23rd Illinois Volunteers).
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My father's gun
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"My father's gun", another Joe English song, shares it melody with "Paddy's Wedding". Following the carnage of Athietam and Fredericksburg, recruiting for the Irish Brigade became much more difficult than it had been in 1861. Playing up the role of Paddy Kearney, a recruiting sergeant for Meagher's brigade, English desparages the Rebels as "spalpeens", migrant workers on the bottom rung of the Irish social ladder, and makes his enlistment pitch to young Irishmen with a mixed bag of inducements - an evocation of his ancestors fighting the British in the 1798 uprising, the example of his own rise in the ranks to sergeant, and the glory and fame they will receive from soldiering.
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Meagher is leading the Irish Brigade
"Meagher is leading the Irish Brigade" give only a nod to the American conflict. The song, set to the music of "The Shamrock Shore" recounts Ireland's unsuccesful fight for freedom through 1861 and holds out the promise that Meagher and his brigade will someday rememdy these losses. Many of the original recruits of the 69th Militia viewed the formation of the Irish Brigade as the first step for a campaign back in Ireland.
The ballad celebrates Patrick Sarsfield whose brilliant defense of Limerick ended when he led his army into exile in France in 1691, Robert Emmett tried and executed for rebellion in 1803 as well as Terrance Bellew McManus, a "Young Irelander" who died in impoverished exile in the United States in 1861. Archbischop Hughes said of McManus that he had sacrificed "his prospects in life, and even life itself, for the freedom of the country which he loved so well and which he knew had been oppressed for centuries". The ballad ends with a rallying call to Irishmen to "conquer our foes yet as Brian [Boru] did the Danes" at Clontarf 1014.
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Free and green
"Free and green" is the only song in this album composed in this, the 20th century. The lyric was written by Carl Funk after a long night spent with a group of Irish musicians on a ship traveling from France to Ireland. Neither Funk, nor his friend and songwriting partner, David Kincaid, had any idea that their fictional Captain Taggart, the name chosen for the song's protagonist, had a real life counterpart in Captain Samuel Taggart, commander of Company I of the Irish Brigade's 116th Pennsylvania. In an eerie coincidence, the real Captain Taggart, as wel loved by his men as his fictional counterpart, was mortally wounded at Ream's Station, Virginia on August 25, 1864, and died in the same manner described in the song. In an equally eerie coincidence, Kincaid remained unaware of the real Taggart or his fate until years later, after he became a Civil War reenactor and joined Company I, 116th Pennsylvania.
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The harp of old Erin & the banner of stars
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"The Harp Of Old Erin & Banner Of Stars" uses the melody of "Saint Patrick's Day", a "set dance" tune, and celebrates the solidarity of the Irish Volunteers with the Union symbolized by their flags. Union army regiments were authorized two "colors", a United States flag and a regimental flag. The regimental flags of most Irish regiments were green and prominently emblazoned with a harp. Irish soldiers carried "the Harp of old Erin and the Banner of Stars" into battle, side by side.
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The list of generals
"The List Of Generals" another Joe English compositions, dates from 1864. It is a litany in praise of Federal commanders, on some of whom history has rendered harsher verdicts. The song, sung to the tune of "Doran's Ass", also celebrates the unity of Irish, German, and Yankee under the banner of the Union. Although "Little Mac", George B. McClellan, a favorite of the Army of the Potomac and its Irish Brigade, was relieved by President Lincoln in 1862 for his lack of aggressiveness, English lauds him as a commander who "should be restored straightaway". Fortunatly for the Irish Brigade and the Union, he was not.
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Pat Murphy of Meagher's brigade
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"Pat Murphy of Meagher's Brigade" recycles the melody of the drinking song "Think of Your Head in the Morning". Murphy, the everyman of Irish Civil War soldiery, fights for the Union, but blames the "Abolitionist spouters so scaly..." as well as the Rebels for starting the war. Many Irish feared job competition from liberated slaves. Pat does his duty, however, which for hime, as for 961 Irish Brigade men over the course of the war, ends in death on the battlefield. The flag symbolism of many Irish American Civil War songs is evoked once again as the singer reminds his listeners "How nobly the brave Irish Volunteers fought in defense of the flag of our Union", hoping to see both "the Stars and Stripes" and the "Flag of the land of Shillaly" united, perhaps in a future fight for the freedom of Ireland.
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