The Shores of Botany Bay

Last updated

"The Shores of Botany Bay", also known as "Botany Bay", is a traditional Irish song. The song's narrator is a bricklayer working long hours in poor conditions at the dockyards. He quits his job and emigrates to Australia. He sings of Botany Bay, the location of Sydney, and dreams of prosperity that the Australian Gold Rush might bring him.

Contents

Recordings

"The Shores of Botany Bay" has been recorded many times by a variety of artists, including:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wolfe Tones</span> Irish rebel music band

The Wolfe Tones are an Irish rebel music band that incorporate Irish traditional music in their songs. Formed in 1963, they take their name from Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, with the double meaning of a wolf tone – a spurious sound that can affect instruments of the violin family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bantry</span> Town in County Cork, Ireland

Bantry is a town in the civil parish of Kilmocomoge in the barony of Bantry on the southwest coast of County Cork, Ireland. It lies in West Cork at the head of Bantry Bay, a deep-water gulf extending for 30 km (19 mi) to the west. The Beara Peninsula is to the northwest, with Sheep's Head peninsula to the southwest.

<i>Come Out, Ye Black and Tans</i> Irish rebel song

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 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.

"The Black Velvet Band" is a traditional folk song collected from singers in Ireland, Australia, England, Canada and the United States describing how a young man is tricked and then sentenced to transportation to Australia, a common punishment in the British Empire during the 19th century. Versions were also published on broadsides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Botany Bay</span> Open ocean bay in Sydney, Australia

Botany Bay, an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 13 km (8 mi) south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cooks River at Kyeemagh, which flows 10 km (6 mi) to the east before meeting its mouth at the Tasman Sea, midpoint between the suburbs of La Perouse and Kurnell. The northern headland of the entrance to the bay from the Tasman Sea is Cape Banks and, on the southern side, the outer headland is Cape Solander and the inner headland is Sutherland Point.

"The Wild Rover" is a very popular and well-travelled folk song. Many territories have laid claim to have the original version.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Warfield</span> 20th and 21st-century Irish singer

Derek Warfield is an Irish singer, songwriter, historian, and a former member of the musical group The Wolfe Tones.

Patrick Brian Warfield is the vocalist, banjo, harp and bodhrán player and lead songwriter with long-standing Irish band The Wolfe Tones. Brian introduces many of the songs at the Wolfe Tones live concerts and is a keen historian.

"Jim Jones at Botany Bay" is a traditional Australian folk ballad dating from the early 19th-century. The narrator, Jim Jones, is found guilty of poaching and sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of New South Wales. En route, his ship is attacked by pirates, but the crew holds them off. When the narrator remarks that he would rather have joined the pirates or indeed drowned at sea than gone to Botany Bay, Jones is reminded by his captors that any mischief will be met with the whip. In the final verse, Jones describes the daily drudgery and degradation of life as a convict in Australia, and dreams of joining the bushrangers and taking revenge on his floggers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wolfe Tones discography</span>

The discography of The Wolfe Tones, an Irish folk and rebel group from the suburbs of Dublin, consists of sixteen studio albums, three extended plays, three live albums and ten compilation albums. The Wolfe Tones released their first album with Fontana Records in 1965 and released their most recent studio album with Shanachie Records in 2004. In the interim, the band has also released albums with Dolphin Records, Triskel Records and MCA.

"The Shores of Amerikay", also known as "The Shores of America", is a traditional Irish song. The song's narrator is emigrating from Ireland to America, and the song is both a meditation on this and a statement of purpose.

"The Galway Races" is a traditional Irish song. The song's narrator is attending the eponymous annual event in Galway, a city in the west of Ireland. The song was made famous in the UK in 1967 by The Dubliners.

<i>American Wake</i> (album) 2010 studio album by Patrick Clifford

American Wake is the first full-length solo album by Patrick Clifford, released in 2010.

"Foggy Dew" is the name of several Irish ballads, and of an Irish lament. The song chronicles the Easter Rising of 1916, and encourages Irishmen to fight for the cause of Ireland, rather than for the British Empire, as so many young men were doing in World War I.

Kevin (Kiev) Connolly is an Irish producer, composer, songwriter, sound engineer, and musician with over twenty years of experience in the industry.

<i>Rifles of the I.R.A.</i> 1970 studio album by The Wolfe Tones

Rifles of the I.R.A. is the fourth album by Irish folk and rebel band The Wolfe Tones. The album title Rifles of the I.R.A. makes reference to the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

<i>Irish to the Core</i> 1976 studio album by The Wolfe Tones

Irish to the Core is the seventh album by Irish folk and rebel band The Wolfe Tones. The album features a number of political songs including Botany Bay and Rock on Rockall.

<i>Across the Broad Atlantic</i> 1976 studio album by The Wolfe Tones

Across the Broad Atlantic is the eighth album by Irish folk and rebel band The Wolfe Tones. The album features songs about Irish emigration to the United States.

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.

References