“You Ribbonmen of Ireland”

Description

Ribbonmen: "Long may you reign May you roll in joy and splendour Till you raise your flag again." The singer recalls taking the Orange drum at Segimore. The Protestant "hates our religion and our ways" and curses any man that goes to church.

Supplemental text

You Ribbonmen of Ireland
  Complete text(s)

          *** A ***

From the recording by Robert Cinnamond (IRRCinnamond01: "Songs of Comment"
FOLKTRAX-157).   Transcribed and with notes by John Moulden; quoted with
his permission. - BS

Oh you Ribbonmen of Ireland
Long may you reign
May you roll in joy and splendour
Till you raise your flag again.
 
We were going down by Segimore
Looking for some fun
Sure that was the very night
We took the Orange drum.
 
Oh you Ribbon boys of Ireland
Long may you reign
May you roll in joy and splendour
Till you raise your flag again.
 
She hates our religion
And our ways very much
And she gives her curse to any man
And turns and goes to church. 
[As Lew Becker suggests, this would make more sense as  'That'.]

[Seggy Moor is what he sings but the Index to Town and Townlands of
the 1871 Census of Ireland has no similar name. However, since a
friend of mine has 120 names, describing some forty distinct locations
within a single townland, the absence of a name from even such a
relatively detailed official record is not a demonstration of its
non-existence. Many of these songs are strictly local and the names
uniquely mentioned.]

Notes

Supporting the Orange position is "beating the Orange drum"; taking the Orange drum then has figurative as well as literal meaning.

I was helped through Cinnamond's text by Lew Becker and John Moulden. The description is based on John Moulden's transcription from IRRCinnamond02 included in the Traditional Ballad Index Supplement. - BS

Recordings

• Robert Cinnamond, "You Ribbonmen of Ireland" (on IRRCinnamond01)

References

1. ST RcYRiMoI (Full)
2. Roud #3081
3. BI, RcYRiMoI