"Take it Down from the Mast" is the common name of an Irish republican song written in 1923 by James Ryan. Entitled "Lines Written by a Republican Soldier in 1923", it was first published in 1936 in Good-Bye Twilight: Songs of Struggle in Ireland, a collection of songs by Leslie Daiken. [1]
Its lyrics refer to the Irish Civil War (1922–23), while the flag in question is the Irish tricolour. The song tells supporters of the Anglo-Irish Treaty and the Irish Free State to take down and cease using it, as it is also the flag of the Irish Republic, which the "Free Staters" betrayed. At the time, the Anti-Treaty IRA regarded their Civil War opponents as traitors and therefore unworthy to use the Irish tricolour.
In 1959, a version written by Dominic Behan [2] was published. It told of the execution of four members of the IRA Executive on 8 December 1922: Dubliner Rory O'Connor, who was spokesman for the Four Courts garrison at the outbreak of the Civil War; Galway man Liam Mellows; Cork volunteer Dick Barrett; and IRA chief-of-staff Joe McKelvey from Tyrone. Their shooting in captivity was a reprisal for the IRA's assassination, the previous day, of TD Seán Hales.
Behan's also accused the Free State of abandoning the province of Ulster, much of which became the state of Northern Ireland after partition in 1921.
"Lines written by a Republican Soldier in 1923" by James Ryan
Take it down from the mast, Irish traitors,
'Tis the flag we republicans claim.
It can never be owned by Free Staters
Who shed nothing upon it but shame.
Then leave it to those who are willing,
To uphold it in war or in peace,
Those men who intend to do killing
Until England's tyranny cease.
Take it down from the mast to remember,
Your comrades who fell in the fight,
Those brave men who'd never surrender
To John Bull, that big tyrant of might.
The flag which to those men spelled freedom
From a foe that is centuries old;
Looking back on the past we can see them
Defending the green, white and gold.
I saw it in all the bright glory
When first it was flung to the wind,
When of freedom they told us the story
That no other nation could find,
When of martyrs their blood often freed us
Till a traitor to England had sold
The land that sorely doth need us
To fight for the green, white and gold.
Take it down for its cause you have scornèd
To make permanent o'er us the Crown
You who linked yourselves up with the foemen
The tricolor then to pull down.
'Tis we and no other can claim it
For to-day joined as one we stand, bold,
To fight England combined with Free Staters
In defence of the green, white and gold. [3]
You have murdered our brave Liam and Rory
You have butchered young Richard and Joe
And your hands with their blood are still gory
Fulfilling the work of the foe.
Refrain
So take it down from the mast, Irish traitors,
It's the flag we Republicans claim.
It can never belong to Free Staters,
For you've brought on it nothing but shame.
Then leave it to those who are willing
To uphold it in war and in peace,
To those men who intend to do killing
Until England's tyranny cease.
Refrain
We'll stand by Enright and Larkin
With Daly and Sullivan the bold
And we'll break down the English connection
And bring back the nation you sold.
Refrain
You sold out the Six Counties for your freedom
When we have given you McCracken and Wolfe Tone
And brave Ulstermen have fought for you in Dublin
Now you watch as we fight on alone.
Refrain
And up in Ulster we're fighting on for freedom
For our people they yearn to be free
You executed those men who fought for us
With a hangman from over the sea.
Refrain
Repeat first stanza
Refrain
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary paramilitary organisation. The ancestor of many groups also known as the Irish Republican Army, and distinguished from them as the "Old IRA", it was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916. In 1919, the Irish Republic that had been proclaimed during the Easter Rising was formally established by an elected assembly, and the Irish Volunteers were recognised by Dáil Éireann as its legitimate army. Thereafter, the IRA waged a guerrilla campaign against the British occupation of Ireland in the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence.
Michael Collins was an Irish revolutionary, soldier and politician who was a leading figure in the early-20th century struggle for Irish independence. During the War of Independence he was Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a government minister of the self-declared Irish Republic. He was then Chairman of the Provisional Government of the Irish Free State from January 1922 and commander-in-chief of the National Army from July until his death in an ambush in August 1922, during the Civil War.
Brendan Francis Aidan Behan was an Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and Irish Republican, an activist who wrote in both English and Irish. He was named by the US website Irish Central as one of the greatest Irish writers of all time.
Peadar Kearney was an Irish republican and composer of numerous rebel songs. In 1907 he wrote the lyrics to "A Soldier's Song", now the Irish national anthem. He was the uncle of Irish writers Brendan Behan, Brian Behan, and Dominic Behan.
Irish republicanism is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate.
"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.
"The Patriot Game" is an Irish ballad with lyrics by Dominic Behan and a melody from the traditional tune "One Morning in May", first released in 1958.
Come Out, Ye Black and Tans is an Irish rebel song referring to the Black and Tans, or "special reserve constables", recruited in Great Britain and sent to Ireland from 1920, to reinforce the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the Irish War of Independence. The song was written by Dominic Behan as a tribute to his Irish Republican Army (IRA) father Stephen, who had fought in the War of Independence, and is concerned with political divisions in working-class Dublin of the 1920s. The song uses the term "Black and Tans" in the pejorative sense against people living in Dublin, both Irish Catholic and Protestant, who were pro-British. The most notable recording was in 1972 by the Irish traditional music group, the Wolfe Tones, which re-charted in 2020.
Daniel Breen was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. In later years he was a Fianna Fáil politician.
William Joseph Mellows was an Irish republican and Sinn Féin politician. Born in England to an English father and Irish mother, he grew up in Ashton-under-Lyne before moving to Ireland, being raised in Cork, Dublin and his mother's native Wexford. He was active with the Irish Republican Brotherhood and Irish Volunteers, and participated in the Easter Rising in County Galway and the War of Independence. Elected as a TD to the First Dáil, he rejected the Anglo-Irish Treaty. During the Irish Civil War Mellows was captured by Pro-Treaty forces after the surrender of the Four Courts in June 1922. On 8 December 1922 he was one of four senior IRA men executed by the Provisional Government.
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to anti-imperialism through Irish republicanism, the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic free from British rule.
Dominic Behan was an Irish writer, songwriter and singer from Dublin who wrote in Irish and English. He was also a socialist and an Irish republican. Born into the literary Behan family, he was one of the most influential Irish songwriters of the 20th century.
Johnston's Motor Car is an Irish rebel song written by Willie Gillespie based on the commandeering in Ulster of a motor car belonging to Henry Maturin Johnston (1851-1932) by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
The Irish Free State offensive of July–September 1922 was the decisive military stroke of the Irish Civil War. It was carried out by the National Army of the newly created Irish Free State against anti-treaty strongholds in the south and southwest of Ireland.
The Northern campaign was a series of attacks by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) Northern Command between September 1942 and December 1944 against the security forces in Northern Ireland. The action taken by the Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland governments as a result of these attacks shattered the IRA and resulted in the former being free from IRA activity by the end of World War II.
Seán Allis Treacy was one of the leaders of the Third Tipperary Brigade of the IRA during the Irish War of Independence. He was one of a small group whose actions initiated that conflict in 1919. He was killed in October 1920, on Talbot Street in Dublin, in a shootout with British troops during an aborted British Secret Service surveillance operation.
William McMillen, aka Liam McMillen, was an Irish republican activist and an officer of the Official Irish Republican Army (OIRA) from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was killed in 1975, in a feud with the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA).
Martin "Doco" Doherty was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), who was shot dead while attempting to prevent a bombing by the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) at a pub in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. Doherty was the first person to be killed in the Republic of Ireland by the UVF since 1975.
The national flag of Ireland, frequently referred to in Ireland as 'the tricolour' and elsewhere as the Irish tricolour is a vertical tricolour of green, white and orange. The proportions of the flag are 1:2.
