Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 7:46pm

The Wearing of the Green

 

When the law can stop the blades of grass from growing as they grow..
And when the leaves, in Summer time, their verdure does not show..
Then, I will change the color I wear in my cabbeen:
But, till that day, please God! I’ll stick to the Wearing of the Green!

Wearing of the Green

 

 

 

Something for the weekend.  The weekend before Saint Patrick’s Day seemed an appropriate time for Irish music, and you don’t get more Irish than  The Wearing of the Green.  Written in 1798 by that most prolific of songsters, Anonymous, the song is a lament and a cry of defiance against the repression imposed by the British on Ireland following the defeat of the Irish rising in 1798.  British misrule in Ireland accounts for the fact that ten percent of Americans claim predominantly Irish ancestry.  The tune as a result has always been popular in  America.  After the Civil War, Anonymous took up his pen in 1865 and wrote The Wearing of the Gray to the same tune.

 

 

 

 

For the Great Gaels of Ireland

Are the men that God made mad,

For all their wars are merry

And all their songs are sad.

GK Chesterton, The Ballad of the White Horse

 

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Philip
Philip
Saturday, March 12, AD 2016 6:25am

“Slainte” to you and your family kind sir.

My mom has been dearly missed. November ninth of 2015 in the wee hours. When I found out St. Benignus is memorialized on that day I was overjoyed. Moms clan is from County Armagh. The Saint, Benignus, was aka the Bishop of Armagh. A student of St. Patrick.

God is so very good to us!

Micha Elyi
Micha Elyi
Sunday, March 13, AD 2016 3:41am

Lest St. Patrick’s Day be next reduced and made a mere Patrick’s day, a day for green beer and posting paper shamrocks on bulletin boards, let us redouble our efforts to restore the word ‘saint’ to St. Valentine’s Day!

Philip
Philip
Sunday, March 13, AD 2016 11:21am

Agreed.

St. Valentine’s Day!

Let us elbow out the groundhog for that beautiful Candlemas Day, February 2nd.

The Angelus rings of course at 6am.12 and 6pm., in our small community. The population in the village is roughly eight hundred or so.
It’s a beautiful gift to stop where you are and pray the Angelus at these times and see others across the street doing the same.

This was a practice for years in many villages.
I’m blessed to live in one that still gives honor to Our Lord through Our Lady.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Sunday, March 13, AD 2016 6:47pm

A version of the song has the lines: “The shamrock is forbid by law to grow in Irish ground.” And “They’re hanging men and women for the wearin’ o’ the green.”
.
In light of 900 years of desultory genocide, St. Patrick’s Day is a bitter sweet occasion. Thank God, the Irish people outlasted the Saxon and are once again citizens of a free nation.
.
A folk belief among early Irish Christians was that St. Patrick will come; gather them up; and take them to Heaven immediately before the second coming of Christ.
.
You all know I don’t read much. Anyhow, I recently finished a new book named, “The Last Armada” which is about the 1602 landing at Kinsale of Spanish troops and the months-long siege and defeat that resulted in what the author termed, “Ireland’s Hastings.”

Philip
Philip
Sunday, March 13, AD 2016 7:05pm

“You all know I don’t read much.”
Rumors T. Shaw…only rumors!

Have a great week.

paul coffey
paul coffey
Tuesday, March 15, AD 2016 1:24pm

T Shaw and Philip- simply Maaaaahvelous! remember me [ memento] this sunday and next, pls as i will you both. and all our fellow bloggers .. ‘who don’t read much ‘

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