What would have happened if instead of a ballad about the IRA hunger-striker Joe McDonnell, the Football Association of Ireland chief executive, John Delaney, had sung Kevin Barry or The Croppy Boy in The Bath pub in Dublin last week? Would anyone have raised an eyebrow?
What if he had sung Amhrán na bhFiann, with its references to cannons roaring and rifles pealing? Would the crowd have stood to attention and doffed their caps out of respect? I suppose it depends on how good a singer Delaney is and how patriotic his audience but one thing is certain. No one would have felt sufficiently exercised to make a video of the event and release it to the media.
Now Delaney finds himself in hot water and has been forced to apologise for any offence he might have caused.
He has also stressed that while he comes from a nationalist background he doesn’t support violence and has worked with cross-Border initiatives in soccer to break down barriers.
It all goes to show that before you open your mouth to sing, you need to pay attention to your audience and your material. Although it should be said that no one in the pub that night seems to have taken offence at Delaney.
Songs of rebellion
Kevin Barry
,
The Croppy Boy
and
Joe McDonnell
are what used to be loosely described as Irish rebel songs.
Kevin Barry
is a song about a young IRA man executed in Dublin in 1920 for his part in an attack on a British army convoy in which several British soldiers were killed. It has been recorded by numerous artists including the great African-American tenor Paul Robeson and sung at concerts by Leonard Cohen. There is no report of either of them getting into trouble as a result.
Ditto with The Croppy Boy, a song commemorating a young man hanged in Wexford for his part in the 1798 rebellion after being betrayed by a member of his own family. James Joyce was fond of the song and referred to it in Ulysses. It has been recorded by artists including the Clancy Brothers.
There is long tradition of such “seditious” ballads stretching back to the 18th century and beyond. And while the quality of the songs varies, they endured because they were popular with the people. In an age before the advent of electronic recording, the songs survived in folk memory because they struck a deep chord with their audiences.
Nor was this tradition confined to Ireland. Similar songs have survived in Scotland and England. Some of the most popular feature Napoleon Bonaparte, suggesting he was regarded as a champion of the common man against the tyranny of monarchs and emperors, although modern historians might disagree.
And in recently modern times, songs such as Joe Hill about the execution of a trade union activist in Utah in 1915 have become popular anthems of the labour movement.
However, while Kevin Barry and The Croppy Boy have their origins in earlier conflicts on this island, the Joe McDonnell ballad is a product of the recent violence in Northern Ireland. And this is where Delaney appears to have run aground.
Safe to sing
Kevin Barry
and the anonymous
Croppy Boy
are now generally accepted as patriots, and songs about them can safely be sung in public. The same acceptance does not yet extend to
Joe McDonnell
.
Here, it is worth remembering that a similar attitude was applied by the victorious Free State forces to their republican opponents at the end of the Civil War. And no doubt, the anti-treaty song, Soldiers of the Rearguard, raised the same hackles as the Joe McDonnell ballad does in some quarters today.
Unfortunately for the hapless John Delaney, he seems to have got himself entangled in wider political debate about the legitimacy of the northern conflict which has been raging for almost 50 years.
As someone who enjoys singing as a hobby, I am always wary of censorship. Throughout the ages, political establishments have attempted to suppress or censor songs which upset or threatened them. The Northern Ireland Special Powers Act which was in place from 1922 till it was eventually abolished in 1973 even allowed for the confiscation of gramophone records regarded as seditious.
I doubt if John Delaney had any inkling singing Joe McDonnell was going to bring the roof crashing down on top of him. But in a perverse way it does go to prove the power of song.
Eugene McEldowney is a former Irish Times journalist, and traditional singer