by Mary W Maxwell, LLB
William Butler Yeats’ sixteen-line poem famously memorializes the unsuccessful 1916 Easter uprising (known as The Rising) of the Irish volunteers:
Sixteen Dead Men
O but we talked at large before
The sixteen men were shot,
But who can talk of give and take,
What should be and what not
While those dead men are loitering there
To stir the boiling pot?
You say that we should still the land
Till Germany’s overcome;
But who is there to argue that
Now Pearse is deaf and dumb?
And is their logic to outweigh
MacDonagh’s bony thumb?
How could you dream they’d listen
That have an ear alone
For those new comrades they have found,
Lord Edward and Wolfe Tone,
Or meddle with our give and take
That converse bone to bone?
But I am here to quote the song of the failed rebellion of Ireland against Britain in 1798, just nine years after the French Revolution. I was preparing to sing it today for a St Patrick’s Day meeting and so noticed that the words seemed awfully relevant, two-hundred and twenty-five years down the line:
The Wearing Of The Green by Dion Boucicault
O Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that’s going round?
The Shamrock is forbid, by laws, to grow on Irish ground!
No more St. Patrick’s day we’ll keep; his color can’t be seen;
For there’s a bloody law against the Wearing of the Green!
Oh! I met with Napper Tandy, and he took me by the hand,
And he says: How is Poor Ould Ireland, and does she stand?
She’s the most distressful Country that ever I have seen:
For they’re hanging men and women there, for the Wearing of the Green!
And since the color we must wear is England’s cruel red,
Ould Ireland’s sons will ne’er forget the blood that they have shed.
Then take the Shamrock from your hat, and cast it on the sod:
It will take root, and flourish still, tho’ under foot ’tis trod.
When the law can stop the blades of grass from growing as they grow
And when the leaves in Summer time their verdure do not show.
Then I will change the color that I wear in my cabbeen:
But till that day, plaze God! I’ll stick to the Wearing of the Green!
But if, at last, her colors should be torn from Ireland’s heart
Her sons with shame and sorrow from the dear old soil will part;
I’ve heard whispers of a Country that lies far beyond sea,
Where rich and poor stand equal, in the light of Freedom’s day!
O Erin! must we leave you driven by the tyrant’s hand!
Must we ask a Mother’s blessing, in a strange but happy land,
Where the cruel Cross of England’s thralldom never to be seen:
But where, thank God! we’ll live and die, still Wearing of the Green!
In a 2014 piece in the Irish periodical, The Nationalist, Frank White reports (from an article whose author he can’t trace) that when laws were established against dissenters in 1695, Irish Catholics were forbidden to own land, to school their children, vote, own a horse worth more than £2.50, be a public official, be a lawyer or soldier, or serve on a jury. This is the period that saw the end of many Irish traditions, including the wearing of the Irish kilt.
White says: “The Revolutionary Society of United Irishmen adopted green as their colour and there was widespread support for the organisation, with men, women and children bedecked in green-hued garments such as ribbons and cockades. This was considered sedition.”
If you are wondering who Napper Tandy was, he was a Dublin-born Protestant and was a revolutionary and member of the United Irishmen. He “attended the Quaker school in County Kildare at the same time as Edmund Burke, even though the latter was eight years older.” Napper Tandy was the son of an ironmonger from a Protestant background, who supported the Catholic side “and played a huge part in nationalist actions over a number of years.”
And now for a story of the power of symbolism to make things right. When Queen Victoria heard, in 1900, of the Irish Regiment’s success in the Boer War, she sent this message:
“I have heard with deepest concern of the heavy losses by my brave Irish soldiers. Her Majesty the Queen is pleased to order that in future on Saint Patrick’s Day all ranks of her Irish Regiments will wear a sprig of shamrock on their headdress in honour of their gallantry.”
Note: We need to get ahead of the situation that is going to explode soon.
Your suggestions, please.
The Weaing of The Green, in my eyes, is a very similar situation to “the unvaccinated” smear created by governments around the world during the Covid-19 scam. Completely criminal and insane activity by government.
However we like the Irish shall win against the moronic bullies.
Thanks, Mal. But when you think of it, the songs don’t seem to inspire sufficiently. Ireland is now behaving like all the other Covidian countries despite the “we’ll never be enslaved” theme. This is the national anthem (A Soldier’s Song):
Soldiers are we,
Whose lives are pledged to Ireland,
Some have come from a land beyond the wave,
Sworn to be free, no more our ancient sireland
Shall shelter the despot or the slave;
This is about the exploding / imploding banking system.
Explanation:
The “Situation Update” from 55:00 gets fully weird, 10 minutes or so well spent there.
Meanwhile in the “real world” the top news item, to help us forget about he banks crashing ( or the crypto-oriented banks being taken down, if you prefer ), is that the “World Court”, is that what they call it ? … Globalists always have more shit somewhere in reserve, has issued a warrant against Putin for abducting thousands of children from some uninhabited areas of Ukraina, well I’m sure this story will keep on giving and help us forget about banks as the need arises, like Putin is an adrenochrome junky for example, and Hillary Clinton will drive her bus into Kiev to rescue the orphans.
Meanwhile our communist government has a cure for the inflation they are desperately trying to embed now, apologising for our wages never going up, of course it’s OUR FAULT we can’t pay for rent or mortgages, the Productivity Commission tells us to work harder !!! And they too have the official BULLSHIT to back it up.
Gold is up to A$2,988 and silver is A$34.25 – I expect gold will go over A$3,000 next week as this collapse continues. However, I’ve been on this roller-coaster before.
Ohio Derailment Contamination Lawsuit by Attorney General against BlackRock et al
https://nationalfile.com/ohio-ag-sues-blackrock-dominated-norfolk-southern/
Irish joke:
Three men die on Christmas eve. To get into heaven, St Peter says
“You must have something on you that represents Christmas to get in”
The English man flicks on his lighter and says: “It’s a candle.”
St Peter lets him pass.
The Welshman jingles his keys and says “They are jingle bells.”
St Peter nods and lets him pass.
The next thing, Paddy steps up to the door and pulls a bra out of his jacket pocket.
St Peter says “What is this to do with Christmas?”
Paddy answers:
“Oh they are Carols.”
Funerals Delayed in Ireland; mortuaries working beyond capacity. Twenty percent increase in national deaths in recent months. Plus Monty Python video:
https://granitegrok.com/blog/2023/03/funeral-delays-in-ireland-theyve-got-more-dead-bodies-than-they-can-bury
we used to laugh so hard, back then. Ee’s not dead just need some remisverdear
The Green Sash or the Order of the Thistle
The green sash that Prince Charles & Princess Anne is wearing is the Order of the Thistle, Scotland’s highest order. They hold biennial services at the Thistle Chapel at St. Giles Cathedral. HM King Charles III and The Princess Royal follow their mother HM Queen Elizabeth II coffin into St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh.
https://markgreenwood.com.au/book/ned-kelly-and-the-green-sash/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly
your ready grasshopper MM, all Roades lead to Rome via the city of London or Zurich, Washington, blah blah – wink
This is for Grasshopper:
“‘Sorry, love, can I have a pint of Guinness and a packet of crisps where you’re ready there’.
‘Oh. You must be Irish’, she replied. The man was evidently offended and responded, ‘The cheek, just because I order a pint of Guinness you assume I’m Irish.
If I ordered a bowl of pasta would you say that make me Italian?!’
‘No’ she replied. ‘But this is a newsagents…’”
Hymn of St.Patrick – lyric video. YouTube
Christ be with me and within me
Christ behind me and before
Christ beside me and to win me
Christ to comfort and restore
Christ beneath me and above me
Christ in quiet and in danger
Christ in hearts of all that love me
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger
Christ in every heart that’s broken
Christ in every joy and pain
Christ in every word that’s spoken
Christ in sun and moon and rain
Christ in resting and in rising
Christ the LORD of all my life
Christ to guide me and to shield me
Christ protecting me in strife