Interrogatoire
 
Canzone léviane – Interrogatoire – Marco Valdo M.I. – 2009
Cycle du Cahier ligné – 49
 
 
Interrogatoire est la quarante-neuvième chanson du Cycle du Cahier ligné, constitué d'éléments tirés du Quaderno a Cancelli de Carlo Levi.
Tu sais, Lucien mon ami, comment ça va dans les guerres des hommes et même, dans les guerres qui n'osent pas dire leur nom, qui se cachent sous le nom de paix... C'est même l'état le plus constant de la guerre, c'est aussi l'état le plus sournois de la guerre de Cent Mille Ans que les riches mènent contre les pauvres. Le plus sournois puisqu'on fait croire qu'il n'y a pas la guerre, que parce que les armes n'entrent pas ouvertement en action pour tuer, conquérir, massacrer... les gens, il n'y aurait pas la guerre. Quelle blague ! Regarde bien, Lucien, seul un des deux camps détient les armes (toutes les armes, y compris des armes lourdes,... (continua)

Written by Mike Swan e Daire Doyle (The Memories)
Performed by The Fureys

The song Gallipoli refers to the slaughtering of allied troops during the poorly planned and badly executed Battle at Gallipoli in Turkey in 1915. It is the Irish counterpart of the Australian oriented song The Band Played Waltzing Matilda.

(from Triskelle)

The Connaught Rangers, or Connaght Rangers, were established in 1793 as an Irish regiment in the British army and fought its first battles in Flanders against Napoleon's troops in 1794 during the Revolutionary Wars.
This first campaign was a disaster for the inexperienced regiment, but in the campaigns that followed in the West Indies, Egypt, India and South America the Connaught Rangers evolved in a respected, tough, and well-oiled war machine. During the Peninsula War from 1808 until 1814 the regiment fought in Wellington's army on the Iberian Peninsula and obtained the honourable nickname The Devil's Own.
Not only in battle the Connaught Rangers lived up to its nickname, as the regiment is also known for its plundering habits.

During the First World War the Connaught Rangers were deployed at several battlefields in for example Belgium and France. The regiment adopted It's A Long Way... (continua)

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.’

BBC History

1969
Album: "At Home with The Dubliners"

Da una poesia di Kevin T. Buggy

Lo scellino dei Sassoni (vedi anche The King's Shilling) era la paga del soldato nell'Impero Britannico. La canzone esorta gli irlandesi a non combattere per gli inglesi, ma per liberare la propria terra.

Album: "Spike" (1989)

Sul significato dell'espressione King's Shilling vedi The King's Shilling