This song depicts England as a caring mother who looked after her rebellious children. Regardless of their misbehaviour, she was always around to comfort and guide her impetuous bunch of kids. Eventually the juveniles reach adulthood and they surprise their mother with civilised behaviour.
On the face of it Whack Fol The Diddle is just a rather sarcastic song, but we have to wonder whether Peadar Kearney, the writer who also wrote A Soldiers Song, would agree with this assessment.
Self-mockery, sarcasm and a sense for understatement was not uncommon for Peadar Kearney. In the song The Row In The Town for example he compares the Easter Rising, in which he had participated, with a row in the town indeed. Nevertheless the storyline of Whack Fol The Diddle is surprising, because Kearney followed his personal friend Michael Collins in the Civil War and joined the Free Staters. Their opponents,... (continuer)
I'll sing you a song of peace and love, (continuer)
I think you are missing the irony of the lyrics. However, you are not alone in that as when the song was originally published quite a few patriots took offence at the chorus.
Thanks for your site
I agree with Mooney's comment. The whole sonng is ironic...... with "Mother England" trying to keep control of her "naughty boys" whether they want it or no....
The words are not "From Bearna Baol to Bunker Hill", but "From Bhéal an Átha Bui to Pieter’s Hill". Bearna Bhaoil is in the National Anthem, but just means "Gap of Danger"... and why would BUnker Hill be referenced?
The first (Bhéal an Átha Bui) refers to the Battle of the Yellow Ford (1598), an Irish victory over English forces in the Nine Year's War.
The second (Pieter's Hill) is a reference to the battle of Collenso (1900) during the Boer War, where the Irish Transvaal Brigade, fighting for the Boers, caused serious casualties on the British side.
Yes this is brillliant Irish irony. I first heard Liam Clancy sing it with his brothers and Tommy Maken in the 60's.
RIP to all of them. Later The Dubliners sang it on occasion.
And now The Mary Wallopers have it.
Personally I prefer the Mary Wallopers version.
Any Irishman should proudly sing this song. My english friends really enjoy it when I sing it.
We as a nation should never hide behind political correctness. We stand by our past both good and bad it is our heritage.
I like the the Mary Wallopers version, until they sing "From the GPO to Bolan's Mill..... ", making it a 1916 narrative. Just what's wrong with the original lyric, which marks the continuing struggle through the ages?
Éirinn go Brách si traduce come “Irlanda per sempre” sinonimo dell’identità irlandese. In realtà, non si conosce la precisa origine della parola bragh, in quanto essa non esiste nel vocabolario irlandese: si presume che chi per primo la utilizzò abbia semplicemente sbagliato lo spelling. Bragh, infatti, si può ricondurre sia a breá, che significa “bello”, “splendido”, sia a brách, la cui traduzione è appunto “per sempre”. È tradizionalmente una frase utilizzata come motto del movimento Repubblicano, e si ritrova infatti sulla sua bandiera. Con lo stesso titolo sono state chiamate canzoni diverse scritte non solo in Irlanda ma anche in Scozia. Questa è la canzone scritta nel 1920 da Peadar Kearney
LA RIVOLTA DI PASQUA 1916
La canzone si riferisce alla rivolta di pasqua del 1916 (lunedì 24 aprile) (Easter Rising) e ne commemora gli eroi.
Nella Pasqua... (continuer)
I’ll sing you a song of a row in the town, (continuer)
Mi si scusi se sono un po'...intervenuto su questa pagina, in primis per cambiare il titolo della canzone. Non risulta che Peadar Kearney abbia scritto la canzone in gaelico irlandese, ed il suo titolo è nella forma anglicizzata: Erin Go Bragh. E' il motivo, tra le altre cose, per cui il termine “Bragh” non si troverà mai un un dizionario irlandese: la forma anglicizzata (dalla pronuncia /ˌɛrɪn ɡə ˈbrɑː/ e scritta, a volte, persino Erin Go Braugh) è quella che ha ottenuto la maggiore diffusione e per un certo tempo si è trovata scritta persino sulla bandiera dell'Eire (tra le altre cose, nella foto riportata da Bernart Bartleby la si vede abbastanza chiaramente). Ciò non toglie, naturalmente, che la forma originale gaelica sia Éirinn go brách, laddove brách non significa tanto “per sempre”, quanto “eternità, fine dei tempi”. In gaelico, si usa anche la forma bráth, dal medesimo significato;... (continuer)
Grazie Riccardo per aver divelto il ginepraio, in effetti il termine è stato usato come sinonimo di irlandese, irlandesità vedasi la canzone scozzese con lo stesso titolo che racconta la storia di un Highlander scambiato per un irlandese e perciò discriminato nientemeno che nelle Lowlands del suo stesso paese.
Anti-enlistment songs, and later on anti-conscription ones, relied heavily on sarcasm, a device used by ballad makers throughout history because it was considered the only weapon the oppressed had against the powerful. These ballads specialized in lampooning politicians and authority figures who encouraged Irishmen to fight in foreign wars. The figure of the ‘Recruiting Sergeant’ has traditionally been a target for verbal abuse and during the Great War he provided inspiration for many ballads as in this one from Tipperary (The Recruiting Sergeant).
The recruiting sergeant in Dublin fared no better than his colleague in Tipperary. The Dublin ballad maker Peadar Kearney who wrote many popular songs during this turbulent period, including the Irish national anthem, Amhrán na bhFiann, treated the recruiting sergeant in an equally sarcastic manner in his song ‘Sergeant William Bailey.’
On the face of it Whack Fol The Diddle is just a rather sarcastic song, but we have to wonder whether Peadar Kearney, the writer who also wrote A Soldiers Song, would agree with this assessment.
Self-mockery, sarcasm and a sense for understatement was not uncommon for Peadar Kearney. In the song The Row In The Town for example he compares the Easter Rising, in which he had participated, with a row in the town indeed. Nevertheless the storyline of Whack Fol The Diddle is surprising, because Kearney followed his personal friend Michael Collins in the Civil War and joined the Free Staters. Their opponents,... (continuer)