“Erin”
Description
"... Sons of green Erin, lament o'er the time, When religion was war, and our country a crime ...Drive the Demon of Bigotry home to his den, And where Britain made brutes now let Erin make men. Let my sons like the leaves of the shamrock unite"
Notes
Broadside Bodleian Harding B 19(24) imprint states "Dublin, June, 1798." - BS
Which date was, in fact, the height of the Irish rebellion. In mid-May, the English had tried to disarm the Irish at various points. The last ten days of May saw risings in Kildare. Wexford rose starting May 26.
But the collapse came almost as fast as the rising: On May 28, Kildare was relieved and General Dundas took thousands of surrenders at Knockallen. On June 5, the rebels were beaten at New Ross. Henry Joy McCracken was defeated at Antrim on June 7. (see the notes to "Henry Joy McCracken (I)). June 13 saw Munro's rebellion crushed at Ballynahinch. Vinegar Hill was stormed on June 21. There were further sporadic attempts at revolt, but odds are that the rebellion was already failing by the time this item was in circulation.
William Drennan also wrote "The Wake of William Orr." - RBW
Broadsides
- Bodleian, Harding B 19(24), "Erin", unknown (Dublin), 1798
References
- O'Conor, pp. 59-60, "Erin" (1 text)
- ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 361-362, "Eire" (1 text)
- H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 39-40, 499, "Eire" ("When Eire first rose from the dark-swelling flood")
- BI, OCon059