Spirit of freedom in words and song
The Golden Sun of Irish Freedom Ñ 1798 in Song and Story
By Danny Doyle and Terence Folan
Published by Mercier Press
Price £7.99
The Ô98 Reader Ñ An Anthology of Song, Prose and Poetry
Edited by Padraic O Farrell
Published by The Lilliput Press
As I was happily listening to the Croppy's Complaint throughout
the summer I had close to hand two books, The Golden Sun of Irish
Freedom - 1798 in Song and Story and The `98 Reader - An
Anthology of Song, Prose and Poetry.
Both contain a selection of `98 ballads alongside a history of
the period.
In some ways The ``98 Reader takes a fairly academic approach,
including many original documents which are a fascinating insight
into the unfolding events and aftermath of the Rebellion not
found in the standard histories. A much appreciated chronology
starting in 1778 with Henry Grattan's address to the English
parliament on conditions in Ireland and ending with the surrender
of Michael Dwyer in 1803 is provided and really helps those of us
less schooled in what sometimes feels like a very fragmented
history of the rebellion. Many stories collected from the oral
tradition have also been included as well as notes on the songs,
poems and their writers. This combination of source material and
oral history gives very personal and sometimes very harrowing
accounts of the events which are then cast into popular ballad or
poem and illustrates the powerful response in Ireland to the
bravery and tragedy that characterises 1798.
``The ballads may not always accurately state the what of history
but they invariably tell you the why,'' says Terence Folan in the
The Golden Sun of irish Freedom.
This book was originally intended to be a script for a
commenoration of 1798 that the singer Danny Doyle could use
during his concerts to mark the Bi-centenary. As such therefore
it is accessible and easy to read. The foreword reads almost as a
defence of the value of the ballads as a people's history. But to
those familiar with the song tradition this defence is
unnecessary. It would do the anti-Come-All-Ye camp no harm to
open their minds to the arguments in this book. Here is a fine
collection of songs, some familiar and some not, interwoven
through the events of `98 presenting the view of the ordinary
people as stated by the balladeer.
There is no pretence in this book of ``objectivity''. The writer
stands squarely with the people of Ireland - sometimes a little
too squarely even for me. But anyway, I think that strikes a
balance against all the efforts to sanitise `98 that we've had to
endure this last year. And another strong point in its favour is
that it includes the music and guitar chords for every song.
We went to Kilalla in August and watched 600 Pikemen and women
march from Humbert's Landing to Kilalla. Snippets of songs of the
period ran through my head as we saw the pikes carried by people
from Kerry, Wexford, Meath and Mayo. Like many other people, I'd
learned these in my family and later from records and other
singers. I remembered my mother telling me that she could trace
her family back to the United Men in Ballinahinch and I was glad.
I just wish there was a collection of songs about women who
fought like Mary Doyle - The Heroine of Ross. But with a bit of
luck that's in the making.
By Maire Nic Maoláin
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