Irish rebel song

2025-10-28T00:49:59Z

2A00:23C8:5544:1C01:F4E7:611:8555:63B4: /* IRA Border Campaign */Under the wrong name

{{Short description|Music genre}}
{{Redirect|Rebel music||Rebel Music (disambiguation){{!}}Rebel Music}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{more citations needed|date=April 2011}}
{{original research|date=April 2011}}
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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}

In the [[music of Ireland]], '''Irish rebel songs''' are [[Folk music|folk songs]] which are primarily about the [[List of Irish uprisings|various rebellions]] against [[British rule in Ireland|British Crown rule]]. Songs about prior rebellions are a popular topic of choice among musicians which supported [[Irish nationalism]] and [[Irish republicanism|republicanism]].

When they discuss events during the 20th and 21st centuries, Irish rebel songs focus on [[Irish republicanism|physical force Irish republicanism]] in the context of the [[Easter Rising]], the [[Irish War of Independence]], the [[Anti-Treaty IRA]] during the [[Irish Civil War]], and, more recently, [[the Troubles]] in Northern Ireland.

==History==
The tradition of rebel music in Ireland date back to the period of [[British rule in Ireland|English (and later British) crown rule]], and describe historical events in [[History of Ireland|Irish history]] such as [[List of Irish uprisings|rebellions against the Crown]] and reinforcing a desire for self-determination among the Irish people and the [[Irish diaspora]].{{fact|date=October 2021}}

As well as a deep-rooted sense of tradition, rebel songs have nonetheless remained contemporary, and since the end of the [[Irish Civil War]] in 1923, the focus has moved onto the [[Irish nationalism|nationalist cause]] in Northern Ireland and the [[Irish Free State]], including support for the [[Anti-Treaty IRA]], the [[Provisional IRA]], the [[Irish National Liberation Army|INLA]], and [[Sinn Féin]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Millar|first=Stephen|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/fulcrum.9w0325104|title=Sounding Dissent: Rebel Songs, Resistance, and Irish Republicanism|date=2020|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=978-0-472-13194-5|location=Ann Arbor, MI|language=en|doi=10.3998/mpub.11393212|hdl=2027/fulcrum.9w0325104|s2cid=211582090 }}</ref> However, the subject matter is not confined to Irish history, and includes the exploits of the [[Connolly Column]], who fought for the [[Republican faction (Spanish Civil War)|Republican]] side in the [[Spanish Civil War]], and also [[Irish Americans in the American Civil War|those who participated]] in the [[American Civil War]]. There are also some songs that express sorrow over war (from a Republican perspective), such as ''Only our rivers run free'', and some have been covered by bands that have tweaked lyrics to be explicitly [[anti-war]], such as the cover of ''The Patriot Game'' by Scottish band [[The Bluebells]].

Over the years, a number of bands have performed "crossover" music, that is, Irish rebel lyrics and instrumentation mixed with other, more pop styles. [[Damien Dempsey]] is known for his pop-influenced rebel ballads and bands like Beltaine's Fire and [[Kneecap (band)|Kneecap]] combine Rebel music with [[political hip hop]] and other genres.{{Citation needed|date=April 2011}}

=== Contemporary music ===
Irish rebel music has occasionally gained international attention. [[The Wolfe Tones]]' version of ''[[A Nation Once Again]]'' was voted the number one song in the world by [[BBC World Service]] listeners in 2002.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/us/features/topten/ |title=The Worlds Top Ten |publisher=[[BBC World Service]] |access-date=24 June 2015}}</ref> Many of the more popular acts recently such as {{lang|ga|Saoirse}}, {{lang|ga|Éire Óg}}, Athenrye, Shebeen, {{lang|ga|Mise Éire}} and {{lang|ga|Pádraig Mór}} are from [[Glasgow]]. The Bog Savages of San Francisco are fronted by an escapee from [[Belfast]]'s [[Long Kesh]] prison who made his break in the September 1983 "[[Maze Prison escape|Great Escape]]" by the IRA.

Music of this genre has often courted controversy with some of this music effectively banned from the airwaves in the [[Republic of Ireland]] in the 1980s. More recently, [[Derek Warfield]]'s music was banned from [[Aer Lingus]] flights, after the [[Ulster Unionist Party|Ulster Unionist]] politician [[Roy Beggs Jr]] compared his songs to the speeches of [[Osama bin Laden]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?jp=SNCWSNCWGB |title=Wolfe Tones pulled from Aer Lingus flights |work=BreakingNews.ie |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310212832/http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/?jp=SNCWSNCWGB |url-status=dead |date=24 March 2003 |archive-date=10 March 2007 |access-date=2 October 2017 }}</ref> However, a central tenet of the justification for rebel music from its supporters is that it represents a long-standing tradition of freedom from tyranny.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Ireland/Irish-Rebel-Songs/2639 |title=Irish Rebel Songs |work=Globerove |access-date=24 June 2015 |archive-date=19 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819033532/http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/article/Ireland/Irish-Rebel-Songs/2639 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Themes include "Arbour Hill", about [[Arbour Hill|the place]]; "Fergal O'Hanlon", about [[Fergal O'Hanlon|the man]]; "Northern Gaels"/"Crumlin Jail", about [[HM Prison Crumlin Road|the prison]]; "The Ballad of Mairead Farrell", about [[Mairead Farrell|the woman]]; "Seán Treacy", about [[Seán Treacy|the man]]; and "Pearse Jordan", about [[Pearse Jordan|the man]].

On the occasion of his being the first Irish actor to win the [[BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role]] in 2024 for ''[[Oppenheimer (film)|Oppenheimer]]'', [[Cillian Murphy]] quipped "It means a lot to me to be Irish. I don't know what else to say – should I sing a rebel song?".<ref name = HP>{{cite web |last=Patrick|first=Holly | url = https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/culture/bafta-oppenheimer-cillian-murphy-ireland-b2498507.html |date=2024-02-19 |publisher = [[The Independent]] | website = independent.co.uk | title = 'Should I sing a rebel song?': Cillian Murphy reacts after making history with Bafta best actor win | access-date = 2025-02-21 }}</ref><ref name = KBK>{{cite web |last=Blake Knox|first=Kirsty | url = https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/movies/kirsty-blake-knox-cillians-offer-to-sing-a-rebel-song-and-10-other-standout-moments-from-the-baftas/a1753073576.html |date=2024-02-20 |publisher = [[The Irish Independent]] | website = independent.ie | title = Kirsty Blake Knox: Cillian's offer to sing a rebel song... and 10 other standout moments from the Baftas | access-date = 2025-02-21 }}</ref>

==List of notable songs by era of subject==
===Nine Years War===
*[[Follow me up to Carlow]]
*''[[Róisín Dubh (song)|Róisín Dubh]]''

===Rapparee songs===
*''[[Éamonn an Chnoic]]'' (a.k.a. Ned of the Hill)
*''[[Women of Ireland|Mná na h-Éireann]]''

===Jacobite songs===
*[[Aisling]]
*[[Mo Ghile Mear]]

===Irish rising of 1798===
*[[Boolavogue (song)|Boolavogue]]
*[[The Boys of Wexford]]
*[[The Bold Fenian Men]] a.k.a. Down by the Glenside
*[[Come All You Warriors]]
*[[The Croppy Boy]]
*[[Dunlavin Green]]
*[[The Minstrel Boy]]
*[[The Rising of the Moon]]
*[[The Wearing of the Green]]
*[[Tone's Grave]] (a.k.a. Bodenstown Churchyard)
*[[The Wind that Shakes the Barley (song)|The Wind that Shakes the Barley]]

===19th-century===
*[[A Nation Once Again]]
*[[The Fields of Athenry]]
*[[God Save Ireland]]
*[[The Peeler and the Goat]]
*[[Skibbereen (song)|Skibbereen]]

===Easter Rising of 1916===
*[[Amhrán na bhFiann]], (a.k.a. The Soldier's Song) – officially adopted as the Irish National Anthem on 12 July 1926
*[[Banna Strand (song)|Banna Strand]] (a.k.a. Lonely Banna Strand)
*[[The Broad Black Brimmer]]
*[[Erin Go Bragh]]
*[[The Foggy Dew (Irish ballad)]]
*James Connolly; about [[James Connolly (song)|the man]]
*[[Oró Sé do Bheatha 'Bhaile]]

===Irish War of Independence===
*[[The Boys of the Old Brigade]]
*[[Come Out, Ye Black and Tans]]
*[[Johnston's Motor Car]]
*[[Kevin Barry (song)|Kevin Barry]]
*[[Mise Éire]]
*[[The Valley of Knockanure]]

===Irish Civil War===
*[[Soldiers of '22]]
*[[Take It Down from the Mast]]

===IRA Border Campaign===
*[[Sean South (song)|Sean South]]
*[[The Patriot Game]]

===The Troubles===
*[[Belfast Brigade]]
*[[Back Home in Derry]], by [[Bobby Sands]]; to the tune of [[The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald#Derivative works|The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald]]
*Connaught Rangers (a.k.a. The Drums Were Beating), about [[Connaught Rangers|the regiment]]
*[[Four Green Fields]] by [[Tommy Makem]]
*[[Give Ireland Back to the Irish]]
*[[Go on home, British soldiers]]
*[[The Helicopter Song]]
*Irish Citizen Army; about [[Irish Citizen Army|the organisation]]
*Irish Volunteers; about [[Irish Volunteers|the organisation]]
*Join the British Army
*[[Little Armalite|My Little Armalite]]
*[[The Men Behind the Wire]]
*[[Roll of Honour (song)|Roll of Honour]]
*[[Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Lennon and Yoko Ono song)|Sunday Bloody Sunday]] (by [[John Lennon]] and [[Yoko Ono]] — the [[Sunday Bloody Sunday|U2 song]] of the same name is [[Irish rebel song#Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2 song)|"not a rebel song"]])
*Tiocfaidh ár lá (a.k.a. [[Surface-to-air missile|SAM]] song))
*[[You'll Never Beat the Irish (Wolfe Tones song)|You'll Never Beat the Irish]]
*[[Ambush at Drumnakilly]]
*[[Arthur McBride]]
*The Boy from Tamlaghtduff
*[[Dying Rebel]]
*Gerard Casey; about [[Gerard Casey (Irish republican)|the man]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://rebelchords.tripod.com/songs1969-present/GerardCasey.htm |title=Ballad Of Gerard Casey |publisher=Rebelchords.tripod.com |date=4 April 1989 |access-date=2012-12-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011225125326/http://rebelchords.tripod.com/songs1969-present/GerardCasey.htm |archive-date=2001-12-25 }}</ref>
*Ireland Unfree; named for [[Ireland unfree shall never be at peace|the oration]]
*Joe McDonnell; about [[Joe McDonnell (hunger striker)|the man]]
*Martin Hurson; about [[Martin Hurson|the man]]
*Men of the West;
*Only Our Rivers Run Free; by [[Mickey MacConnell]]
*[[Pat of Mullingar]]
*[[The People's Own MP]]
*[[Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six]]
*Tom Williams; about [[Tom Williams (Irish Republican)|the man]].
*[[There Were Roses]], by [[Tommy Sands (Irish folk singer)|Tommy Sands]]

==Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2 song)==
{{main|Sunday Bloody Sunday}}
The 1983 [[U2]] album [[War (U2 album)|''War'']] includes the song "[[Sunday Bloody Sunday]]", a lament for the [[Northern Ireland troubles]] whose title alludes to the 1972 [[Bloody Sunday (1972)|Bloody Sunday]] shooting of Catholic demonstrators by British soldiers. In concert, [[Bono]] began introducing the song with the disclaimer "this song is ''not'' a rebel song".<ref>{{cite web |url= http://u2_interviews.tripod.com/id19.html |title= War & Peace |last= Thrills |first= Adrian |access-date= 7 November 2007 |work= NME |date= 26 February 1983 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110717104003/http://u2_interviews.tripod.com/id19.html |archive-date= 17 July 2011 }}</ref> These words are included in the version on ''[[Under a Blood Red Sky]]'', the 1983 live album of the [[War Tour]]. The 1988 concert film ''[[Rattle and Hum]]'' includes a performance hours after the 1987 [[Remembrance Day bombing]] in Enniskillen, which Bono condemns in a mid-song rant.

In response, [[Sinéad O'Connor]] released a song with the title "This is a Rebel Song",<ref>{{cite book|editor-last1=Downing|editor-first1=John Derek Hall|last1=Rolston|first1=Bill|title=Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSkKAOoaSGIC&pg=PA415|access-date=20 May 2016|year=2011|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=9780761926887|page=415|chapter=Political Song (Northern Ireland)}}</ref> as she explains in her live album ''[[How About I Be Me (And You Be You)?]]''

==Satire==
* During the 1990s, Irish comedian [[Dermot Morgan]] lampooned both the [[Wolfe Tones]] and the [[cliché]]s of Irish rebel songs by singing about the martyrdom of Fido, an [[German Shepherd|Alsatian dog]] who saves his [[Irish Republican Army|IRA]] master in the [[Irish War of Independence]]. During a search of the house by the [[Black and Tans]], Fido hides his master's [[hand grenade]] by eating it. When Fido farts and the grenade explodes, the British comment: "Excuse me, mate, was there something your dog ate?!"<ref>Dermot Morgan performing "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7afbXdIzkB8 An Alsatian Once Again]" in 1990</ref><ref> [https://madmusic.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=41477 An Alsatian Once Again]</ref> In a parody of [[Thomas Davis (Young Irelander)|Thomas Osborne Davis]]' famous rebel song "[[A Nation Once Again]]", the song climaxes with the words: "Another martyr for old Ireland, by [[Britannia]] cruelly slain! I hope that somewhere up there I hope he'll be an Alsatian once again! An Alsatian once again! An Alsatian once again! That Fido who's now in ribbons will be an Alsatian once again!"<ref>Dermot Morgan performing "[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7afbXdIzkB8 An Alsatian Once Again]" in 1990</ref><ref> [https://madmusic.com/song_details.aspx?SongID=41477 An Alsatian Once Again]</ref>
* Irish-American actor and comedian [[Denis Leary]] engaged in a similarly brutal mockery of rebel songs and their cliches in ''[[Traditional Irish Song]]''.<ref> [https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/705293/Traditional+Irish+Folk+Song Traditional Irish Song] by [[Denis Leary]].</ref>

==See also==
*[[Charlie and the Bhoys]]
*[[The Clancy Brothers|The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://homepages.iol.ie/~ronolan/clancys.html|title=The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem|access-date=24 June 2015|archive-date=25 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225095146/http://homepages.iol.ie/~ronolan/clancys.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*[[The Dubliners]]
*[[Eamonn McGirr|Go Lucky Four]]
*[[Dave Kincaid|David Kincaid]]
*[[Christy Moore]]<ref>[http://www.christymoore.com/lyrics_tabs_detail.php?id=74 Christy Moore.com Back home in Derry] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091216004028/http://www.christymoore.com/lyrics_tabs_detail.php?id=74 |date=16 December 2009 }}</ref>
*[[Dermot O'Brien]]
*[[Brendan McFarlane|Tuan]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Irish rebel songs}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Irish Rebel Music}}
[[Category:Irish rebel songs| ]]
[[Category:Irish patriotic songs|Rebel song]]
[[Category:Irish styles of music]]
[[Category:Political music genres]]
[[Category:Songs about revolutions]]
[[Category:1900s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1910s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1920s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1930s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1940s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1950s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1960s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1970s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1980s in Irish music]]
[[Category:1990s in Irish music]]
[[Category:2000s in Irish music]]
[[Category:2010s in Irish music]]
[[Category:2020s in Irish music]]

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Irish rebel song