by Christina
(Charleston, SC, America)
My friend from County Clare, Ireland, Siobhan, sang Paddy's Lament last night and I liked it so much that I want to learn it myself. Do you put up vocal music? Can you put Paddy's Lament up?
Here's the chorus, in case you don't know what I'm talking about.
"Here's you boys, now take my advice
To America I'll have ye's not be going
There is nothing here but war, where the murderin' cannons roar
And I wish I was at home in dear old Dublin"
~Christina
Dana:
Christina, that is a beautiful song. I had never heard it before. I did find easy sheet music already out there.
By the Hush sheet music
I guess "By the Hush" is another name for Paddy's Lamentation.
Here is a bit of information from the site that provides the PDF above:
By the Hush
No one has managed to find the original of By the Hush (an Irish song that seems to be known only in Canada!), but there is a broadside from around 1870. This is sort of a transition song: The old war songs were often told by the women who had lost their loves. Here, the soldier lives, but loses all. The way was open for songs like Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye and Ain't Gonna Study War No More. General Meagher (pronounced "Mahar") is Thomas Francis Meagher, an Irish patriot turned exile; he joined the Union army because he thought, wrongly, that England would back the Confederacy. He recruited an "Irish Brigade" in 1861, and was made its commanding general -- and resigned in disgust in 1863 because the brigade had taken 90% casualties and not gotten help or reinforcements. This is a song about one of those casualties.