"The Rising of the Moon" is an Irish ballad recounting a battle between the United Irishmen, led by Wolfe Tone, against British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
"The Rising of the Moon" is an Irish ballad recounting a battle between the United Irishmen, led by Wolfe Tone, against British forces during the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
The ballad's singer is told that the "pikes must be together at the rising of the moon" to engage in the rebellion. The pikemen gather, but are defeated by the government forces. Despite the loss, the listener is told that there are those who will "follow in their footsteps" to again revolt against British rule in Ireland.
The ballad has taken the tune of another Irish ballad, "The Wearing of the Green", [1] and was first published in John Keegan Casey's 1866 collection of poems and songs, A Wreath of Shamrocks. The lyrics were written by Casey (1846–70), the "Fenian Poet", who based the poem on the failed 1798 uprising in Granard, County Longford. [1]
The ballad has been in circulation since circa 1865. [2] The earliest verifiable date found in publication is 1867. [3]
The ballad refers to the outbreak of the 1798 rebellion, as United Irish rebels convey the order to rise. The air of hope and optimism associated with the ultimately doomed rebellion was intended to provide inspiration for rebels preparing to take to the field in another ill-fated venture, the Fenian rebellion of 1867.
Multiple variants of the lyrics have been published in folk music collections. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] In the late 19th century, the ballad was also published through the printing of broadsides. [10] [11]
The song remains popular and the tune is widely recognised in Ireland today, as it is often taught in schools, played regularly at official and sporting events, and has been covered by a wide variety of musicians, including The 97th Regimental String Band, The Dubliners, The Clancy Brothers, The High Kings, Tommy Makem, Shane MacGowan, Tia Blake, Barry McGuire and Peter, Paul and Mary.
The Fenian Brotherhood was an Irish republican organisation founded in the United States in 1858 by John O'Mahony and Michael Doheny. It was a precursor to Clan na Gael, a sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). Members were commonly known as "Fenians". O'Mahony, who was a Gaelic scholar, named his organisation after the Fianna, the legendary band of Irish warriors led by Fionn mac Cumhaill.
"God Save Ireland" is an Irish rebel song celebrating the Manchester Martyrs, three Fenians executed in 1867. It served as an unofficial Irish national anthem for Irish nationalists from the 1870s to the 1920s.
In the music of Ireland, Irish rebel songs refer to 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. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Irish rebel songs focus on physical force Irish republicanism in the context of the Troubles in Northern Ireland and the Irish War of Independence.
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.
John Kelly lived in the town of Killanne in the parish of Rathnure, west of Enniscorthy, in County Wexford in Ireland, and was a United Irish leader who fought in the Irish Rebellion of 1798. Kelly was obviously well known to rebels and loyalists alike during the short duration of the Wexford Rebellion but almost nothing is known of him outside this time. He was one of the leaders of the rebel victory at the Battle of Three Rocks which led to the capture of Wexford town but was later seriously wounded while leading a rebel column at the Battle of New Ross.
"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".
Down by the Glenside (The Bold Fenian Men) is an Irish rebel song written by Peadar Kearney, an Irish Republican and composer of numerous rebel songs, including "The Soldier's Song" ("Amhrán na bhFiann"), now the Irish national anthem, and "The Tri-coloured Ribbon".
John Keegan "Leo" Casey, known as the Poet of the Fenians, was an Irish poet, orator and republican who was famous as the writer of the song "The Rising of the Moon" and as one of the central figures in the Fenian Rising of 1867. He was imprisoned by the English and died on St. Patrick's Day in 1870.
Patrick Joseph McCall was an Irish songwriter and poet, known mostly as the author of lyrics for popular ballads. He was assisted in putting the Wexford ballads, dealing with the 1798 Rising, to music by Arthur Warren Darley using traditional Irish airs. His surname is one of the many anglicizations of the Irish surname Mac Cathmhaoil, a family that were chieftains of Kinel Farry in County Tyrone.
John Francis O'Mahony was an Irish scholar and the founding member of the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States, sister organisation to the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Despite coming from a reasonably wealthy family and being well educated, the primary pursuit of O'Mahoney's life was that of Irish Independence from the United Kingdom, a calling that ultimately left him in poverty. O'Mahony fought in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848 as well as the US Civil War, and was involved organisationally in the Fenian Rising of 1867 in Ireland and the Fenian Raids on Canada.
"Boolavogue" is an Irish ballad commemorating the campaign of Father John Murphy and his army in County Wexford during the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It was composed by Patrick Joseph McCall in 1898, the centenary of the Rebellion.
"Polly Vaughn" is an Irish folk-song.
Thomas Joseph Kelly was an Irish revolutionary and leader of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), a secret organisation with the objective of establishing an Irish republic independent from the United Kingdom. Kelly was the nominal leader of the failed Fenian Rising of 1867. He had previously also been an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, serving mainly with the 10th Ohio Infantry "The Bloody 10th".
Dunlavin Green is an Irish ballad referring to the Dunlavin Green executions in 1798 of 36 suspected rebels.
The word Fenian served as an umbrella term for the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and their affiliate in the United States, the Fenian Brotherhood. They were secret political organisations in the late 19th and early 20th centuries dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic. In 1867 they sought to coordinate raids into Canada from the United States with a rising in Ireland. In the 1916 Easter Rising and the 1919–1921 Irish War of Independence, the IRB led the republican struggle.
"Donnelly and Cooper" is an Irish ballad recounting a historic bare-knuckle boxing match between Dan Donnelly and George Cooper.
The Fenian Rising of 1867 was a rebellion against British rule in Ireland, organised by the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB).
&id=12191.gif&seq=1&size=0){kind=link}
&id=12200.gif&seq=1&size=0){kind=link}