"Back Home in Derry" is an Irish rebel song written by Bobby Sands while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze. [1] [2]
The song has been covered by multiple artists, most notably by Christy Moore in his 1984 album Ride On , who sang it to a melody inspired by Gordon Lightfoot's famous 1976 song "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. [3] [4] Moore's version is shorter than the original poem. [5]
The lyrics describe the voyage of Irish rebels, convicted to exile in Australia, in the aftermath of the Irish Rebellion of 1803. The narrator describes the feelings of the men as they sail away from Ireland, in precarious conditions, while the chorus is a lament of longing for Derry. [2] The city appears to be used as a symbol for one's hometown, as historically, the Irish Rebellion of 1803 was centered around Dublin. Throughout the song, the narrator describes the mistreatment of Irish prisoners by the Dublin Castle administration, and the execution of Robert Emmet is mentioned.
The narrator is ultimately deported to van Diemen's land, where he endures a harsh existence of servitude and violence.
In the last stanza of the song, the narrator remains a hardened republican, despite his trials of twenty years:
Twenty years have gone by and I’ve ended my bond,
My comrades' ghosts walk beside me.
Well a rebel I came and sure I'll die the same,
On a cold winter's night you will find me.— Bobby Sands
Robert Emmet was an Irish Republican, orator and rebel leader. Following the suppression of the United Irish uprising in 1798, he sought to organise a renewed attempt to overthrow the British Crown and Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland, and to establish a nationally representative government. Emmet entertained, but ultimately abandoned, hopes of immediate French assistance and of coordination with radical militants in Great Britain. In Ireland, many of the surviving veterans of '98 hesitated to lend their support, and his rising in Dublin in 1803 proved abortive.
Thomas Moore, also known as Tom Moore, was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his Irish Melodies. His setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish to English. Politically, Moore was recognised in England as a press, or "squib", writer for the aristocratic Whigs; in Ireland he was accounted a Catholic patriot.
In the music of Ireland, Irish rebel songs are folk songs which are primarily about the various rebellions against English Crown rule. Songs about prior rebellions are a popular topic of choice among musicians which supported Irish nationalism and republicanism.
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 was a popular insurrection against the British Crown in what was then the separate, but subordinate, Kingdom of Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen. First formed in Belfast by Presbyterians opposed to the landed Anglican establishment, the Society, despairing of reform, sought to secure a republic through a revolutionary union with the country's Catholic majority. The grievances of a rack-rented tenantry drove recruitment.
Luke Kelly was an Irish singer, folk musician and actor from Dublin, Ireland. Born into a working-class household in Dublin city, Kelly moved to England in his late teens and by his early 20s had become involved in a folk music revival. Returning to Dublin in the 1960s, he is noted as a founding member of the band The Dubliners in 1962. The Irish Post and other commentators have regarded Kelly, known for his distinctive singing style and sometimes political messages, as one of Ireland's greatest folk singers.
Christopher Andrew "Christy" Moore is an Irish folk singer, songwriter and guitarist. In addition to his significant success as a solo artist, he is one of the founding members of the bands Planxty and Moving Hearts. His first album, Paddyon the Road was recorded with Dominic Behan in 1969. In 2007, he was named as Ireland's greatest living musician in RTÉ's People of the Year Awards.
Events from the year 1981 in Ireland.
Ride On is an album by Irish folk singer Christy Moore, released in 1984. Its title track remains one of his most popular songs. A number of songs relate the actions of those involved in political struggles, or those affected by those struggles; such as "Viva la Quinte Brigada" which is concerned with the Irish contingent amongst the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War; or "El Salvador" dealing with the civil war in that country in the 1980s. Other songs deal with Irish history – "The City of Chicago", about emigration to America during the Irish famines of the late 1840s; "Back Home in Derry" written by Bobby Sands about the transportation to Australia of convicts; and "Lisdoonvarna" celebrating a music festival that took place annually in that town until the early 1980s.
Daniel Gerard Morrison is an Irish former Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer, author and activist who played a crucial role in public events during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. An Irish republican, Morrison is also a former Sinn Féin publicity director and editor of Republican News and An Phoblacht. He is the secretary of the Bobby Sands Trust and current chairman of Féile an Phobail, the largest community arts festival in Ireland.
"The Wearing of the Green" is an Irish street ballad lamenting the repression of supporters of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It is to an old Irish air, and many versions of the lyric exist, the best-known being by Dion Boucicault. The song proclaims that "they are hanging men and women for the wearing of the green".
Frank Harte was a traditional Irish singer, song collector, architect and lecturer. He was born in Chapelizod, County Dublin, and raised in Dublin. His father, Peter Harte, who had moved from a farming background in Sligo, owned 'The Tap' pub in Chapelizod.
Leo Eric Varadkar is an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2017 to 2020 and from 2022 to 2024, as Tánaiste from 2020 to 2022, and as leader of Fine Gael from 2017 to 2024. A TD for the Dublin West constituency since 2007, he has held a range of other ministerial positions in the Irish government. His political stances have been described as centre-right economically; he has advocated free markets, lower taxes, and welfare reform. On social issues, he supported successful constitutional referendums to legalise same-sex marriage and to liberalise Ireland's abortion laws.
The People's Own MP is an Irish rebel song about Bobby Sands, one of the Irish hunger strikers.
Between 1 March 1976 and 3 October 1981, Irish republican prisoners in HM Prison Maze carried out a variety of protests against the withdrawal of Special Category Status for prisoners convicted of proscribed "terrorism" offences. These protests culminated in the 1981 Irish hunger strike in which ten prisoners died.
The Irish rebellion of 1803 was an attempt by Irish republicans to seize the seat of the British government in Ireland, Dublin Castle, and trigger a nationwide insurrection. Renewing the struggle of 1798, they were organised under a reconstituted United Irish directorate. Hopes of French aid, of a diversionary rising by radical militants in England, and of Presbyterians in the north-east rallying once more to the cause of a republic were disappointed. The rising in Dublin misfired, and after a series of street skirmishes, the rebels dispersed. Their principal leader, Robert Emmet, was executed; others went into exile.
Robert Gerard Sands was a member of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) who died on hunger strike while imprisoned at HM Prison Maze in Northern Ireland. Sands helped to plan the 1976 Balmoral Furniture Company bombing in Dunmurry, which was followed by a gun battle with the Royal Ulster Constabulary. Sands was arrested while trying to escape and sentenced to 14 years for firearms possession.
"The Galtee Mountain Boy" is an Irish folk ballad, originally written by Patsy O'Halloran. Christy Moore added a fourth verse to O'Halloran's original three; this is the version that is most commonly performed.
The Spirit of Freedom is an Irish folk music album by Christy Moore. The album is notable for featuring two songs written by Provisional IRA member Bobby Sands. The songs "Back Home in Derry" and "McIlhatton" were written by Sands while in prison at Long Kesh.
"If They Come in the Morning" is the original title of the song better known as "No Time For Love". It was recorded by Moving Hearts for their debut album in 1981. It also has been recorded in 1986 by Christy Moore on his The Spirit of Freedom album. It was written by American singer/songwriter Jack Warshaw in 1976. The title was borrowed from the book of the same title by Angela Davis, rephrasing the closing line of James Baldwin's letter to her of November 19, 1970: "...if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night". From its first line the song attacks unjust law in the forms of "apartheid, internment, conscription, partition and silence..." with references to places prominent in the news at the time: Boston, Chicago, Saigon, Santiago (Chile), Cape Town and Belfast. Warshaw had visited Belfast on a research project and knew fellow Belfast/Derry songwriters The People of No Property whose recording was to be the source of Moore's version. To Moore and Irish opposition to partition and, as they see it, British occupation of Northern Ireland, it was a freedom anthem. Moore varied the song's first line, slipping in "we call it" after "They call it the law..." so that its meaning is unmistakable. He also entered Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands into the fourth stanza after Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in place of "the Panthers," giving the song greater traction through Sands' martyrdom.
Varadkar moved on with his entourage down Grafton Street and dropped €10 into the guitar case of Vincent Fottrell, 79, a busker. "Generous," said Fottrell. "But I still plan to vote for Sinn Féin." He underlined the point by singing Back Home in Derry, a rebel song written by the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands.