Monday Music: Red Is the Rose

For all who carry Irish blood in their veins, and for all others who wish they did, 

and in honor of St. Patrick's Day upon the morrow:

Red Is the Rose

(Traditional Irish Ballad)

Come over the hills, my bonnie Irish lass

Come over the hills to your darling

You choose the road, love, and I'll make the vow

And I'll be your true love forever.

Chorus

Red is the rose that in yonder garden grows

Fair is the lily of the valley

Clear is the water that flows from the Boyne

But my love is fairer than any.

'Twas down by Killarney's green woods that we strayed

When the moon and the stars they were shining

The moon shone its rays on her locks of golden hair

And she swore she'd be my love forever.

Chorus

It's not for the parting that my sister pains

It's not for the grief of my mother

'Tis all for the loss of my bonny Irish lass

That my heart is breaking forever.

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Monday Music: She Moved through the Fair

"She Moved Through the Fair" is a traditional Irish folk song dating back to medieval times. It is sung here by Anne Briggs who was very influential in the English folk revival in the 1960s, though she had a relatively short recording career and never aspired to widespread fame and commercial success.

Monday Music: The Foggey Dew

Monday, April 24, 1916 was the beginning of the Easter Rising, an armed resistance by the Irish against oppressive British rule. The movement was quickly squashed by the British, but in the aftermath support for an independent Republic of Ireland became more solidified. An article in Wikipedia states: “A few months after the Easter Rising, W. B. Yeats commemorated some of the fallen figures of the Irish Republican movement, as well as expressed his torn emotions regarding these events, in the poem Easter, 1916. Some survivors of the Rising went on to become leaders of the independent Irish state and those who died were venerated by many as martyrs.” (You can read Yeats' poem here)

“The Foggy Dew,” an Irish ballad commemorating the Easter Rising, was written in 1919 by Canon Charles O’Neill, a parish priest from County Down. The song is performed her by Sinead O’Connor with The Chieftains for their album The Long Black Veil.

    

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