"God Save the King" or "God Save the Queen" is the national or royal anthem in most Commonwealth realms, their territories, and the British Crown Dependencies. The author of the tune is unknown and it may originate in plainchant, but an attribution to the composer John Bull is sometimes made.
Roger David Casement, known as Sir Roger Casement, CMG, between 1911 and 1916, was a diplomat and Irish nationalist executed by the United Kingdom for treason during World War I. He worked for the British Foreign Office as a diplomat, becoming known as a humanitarian activist, and later as a poet and Easter Rising leader. Described as the "father of twentieth-century human rights investigations", he was honoured in 1905 for the Casement Report on the Congo and knighted in 1911 for his important investigations of human rights abuses in the rubber industry in Peru.
"The Maple Leaf Forever" is a Canadian song written by Alexander Muir (1830–1906) in 1867, the year of Canada's Confederation. He wrote the work after serving with the Queen's Own Rifles of Toronto in the Battle of Ridgeway against the Fenians in 1866.
"This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940 in critical response to Irving Berlin's "God Bless America", with melody based on a Carter Family tune called "When the World's on Fire". When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing "God Bless America" on the radio in the late 1930s, he sarcastically called his song "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land".
Ode to Newfoundland is the official provincial anthem of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.
"I Vow to Thee, My Country" is a British patriotic hymn, created in 1921, when music by Gustav Holst had a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice set to it. The music originated as a wordless melody, which Holst later named "Thaxted", taken from the "Jupiter" movement of Holst's 1917 suite The Planets.
Chidiock Tichborne, erroneously referred to as Charles, was an English conspirator and poet.
"The Bonnie Blue Flag", also known as "We Are a Band of Brothers", is an 1861 marching song associated with the Confederate States of America. The words were written by the entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song "The Irish Jaunting Car". The song's title refers to the unofficial first flag of the Confederacy, the Bonnie Blue Flag. The left flag on the sheet-music is the Bonnie Blue Flag.
Banna Strand, also known as Banna Beach, is situated in Ballyheigue Bay. It is an Atlantic Ocean beach extending from Ballyheigue Beach at the Blackrock in the North to Barrow Beach at its southern edge, located in County Kerry. It is located approximately 12 km (7 mi) north west of Tralee. It features sand dunes along its entire length which rise up to 12 metres (40 ft). The mountains of the Dingle Peninsula can be seen on the south west horizon. Many residents from Tralee make a trip to Banna Strand on the warmest summer days.
"Over the Hills and Far Away" is a traditional British song, dating back to at least the late 17th century. One version was published in Thomas D'Urfey's Wit and Mirth, or Pills to Purge Melancholy; a very different one appeared in George Farquhar's 1706 play The Recruiting Officer. A version also appears in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera of 1728.
"Little Armalite", also known as "My Little Armalite" or "Me Little Armalite" is an Irish Republican song that praises Armalite rifles that were used by republican paramilitaries against British security forces in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. One recording of the song, by Wolfhound, was released on 7" in 1975.
The caubeen is an Irish beret, formerly worn by peasants. It has been adopted as the head dress of Irish regiments of Commonwealth armies.
The Casement Report was a 1904 document written by Roger Casement (1864–1916)—a diplomat and Irish independence fighter—detailing abuses in the Congo Free State which was under the private ownership of King Leopold II of Belgium. This report was instrumental in Leopold finally relinquishing his private holdings in Africa. Leopold had held ownership of the Congolese state since 1885, granted to him by the Berlin Conference, in which he exploited its natural resources for his own private wealth.
Back Home in Derry is an Irish rebel song written by Bobby Sands while imprisoned in HM Maze.
SS Libau was a merchant steam ship. In 1916 she was disguised with the identity of a Norwegian vessel named the SS Aud in an attempt to carry arms from Germany to Ireland as part of the preparation for the Easter Rising.
The Voice of the People is an anthology of folk songs produced by Topic Records containing recordings of traditional singers and musicians from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
John Locke (1847–1889) was an Irish writer and Fenian activist, exiled to the United States, and most famous for writing "Dawn on the Irish Coast", also known as "The Exiles Return, or Morning on the Irish coast".
The Howth gun-running involved the delivery of 1,500 Mauser rifles to the Irish Volunteers at Howth harbour in Ireland on 26 July 1914. The unloading of guns from a private yacht during daylight hours attracted a crowd, and the authorities ordered police and military intervention. Despite this the Volunteers evaded the security forces and carried away the arms. As the King's Own Scottish Borderers returned to barracks, they were accosted by civilians at Bachelors Walk, who threw stones and exchanged insults with the regulars. In an event later termed the Bachelor's Walk massacre, the soldiers shot into the civilian crowd and bayoneted one man, resulting in the deaths of four civilians and wounding of at least 38.
The 25th Anniversary album is the fifteenth album by the Irish folk and rebel band The Wolfe Tones, released in 1989 by Shanachie Records. It is both a new studio album and a greatest hits release as it features both new recordings unique to this record and old recordings from previous albums. New recordings include "Broad Black Brimmer" with an electric guitar and drums played during the final verse, "James Connolly", "Banna Strand", "Monsignor Horan", and "Come Out Ye Black and Tans", among others.
Transportation ballads are a genre of broadside ballad some of which became an important part of the folk song traditions of Britain and Ireland. They concern the transportation of convicted criminals firstly to the American colonies and then to penal colonies in Australia. Transportation ballads were published as broadsides,. Many have passed into the folk tradition and have been collected subsequently from traditional singers.
