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Verse 1:
Oh! Paddy, dear, and did you hear
The news that's going round?
The shamrock is forbid by law
To grow on Irish ground.
Saint Patrick's day no more we'll keep;
His color can't be seen.
For there's a bloody law against
The Wearin' O' the Green!
I met with Napper Tandy
And he took me by the hand;
And he said "How's poor old Ireland,
And how does she stand?"
She's the most distressful country,
That ever you have seen.
They're hanging men and women there
For Wearing of the Green!
Verse 2:
Then since the color we must wear
Is England's cruel red;
Sure Ireland's sons will ne'er forget
The blood that they have shed.
You may take the shamrock from your hat
And cast it on the sod;
But 'twill take root and flourish still,
Though underfoot 'tis trod.
When law can stop the blades of grass
From growing as they grow;
And when the leaves in summertime
Their verdure dare not show;
Then I will change the color
I wear in my caubeen.
But 'til that day, I'll stick for aye
To Wearing of the Green!
Verse 3:
But if at last our color should
Be torn from Ireland's heart,
Her sons with shame and sorrow
From the dear old soil will part.
I've heard whisper of a country
That lies far beyond the sea,
Where rich and poor stand equal
In the light of freedom's day.
Oh, Erin, must we leave you,
Driven by the tyrant's hand?
Must we ask a mother's welcome
From a strange but happy land?
Where the cruel cross of England's thraldom
Never shall be seen.
And where, in peace, we'll live and die,
A Wearing of the Green!
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I couldn't find the definition of "caubeen" or "Napper". The word "thraldom" was unfamiliar to me; it means slavery, bondage, or servitude.
It's good to be reminded of one of the varied hardships which prompted so many to seek a new homeland in the United States of America.
1 comment:
Jeannelle... I was just looking back through your earlier posts. You've probably already found out this information; if so, I apologize for using your comment space.
For this particular song "Wearing of the Green" (never being one to leave a stone unturned if I can find the information), I discovered that a "caubeen" is an Irish soldier's small hat, similar to a tam o'shanter. I also discovered the following information on Napper Tandy.
Born: 1740, Dublin, Ireland. Died: August 24, 1803, Bordaeux, France
Irish politician, ineffectual revolutionary and popular hero memorialized in the Irish ballad, “The Wearing of the Green”.
I met with Napper Tandy, And he took me by the hand, And he said, “How’s poor old Ireland, And how does she stand?”
In the early 1780’s, Tandy was an artillery commander in the Irish Volunteers, and in 1791 he helped to form a Dublin branch of the radical Society of United Irishmen. Forced into exile in 1791, he made his way to Philadelphia in 1795 and to Paris in 1798, when the French government made him a General and sent him back to Ireland to raise an army against the British. On September 16, 1798 he landed at Rutland Island, off the Donegal coast, but abandoned the venture the same day. While returning circuitously to France, he was captured in Hamburg (November 1798), turned over to the British (September 1799), and at a trial in Ireland, was sentenced to death (April 1800). He was released unconditionally, however, at the demand of Napoleon Bonaparte, and went (March 1802) to Bordeaux to live.
I'm loving your hymn blog!
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