The Origin Of 'The Rebels Yell' Song

international | racism & migration related issues | other press

Tuesday November 16, 2010 06:50

by AchuslaClarke

The Irish Singer's Own Book in Boston, 1880 credited this song to Patrick Carpenter, a poet and native of Skibbereen. It was published in 1915 where Herbert Hughes said it had been found in County Tyrone. It is sung here by Ronnie Drew. It is today the anthem of Irish immigrants worldwide or the Rebels Yell of Irish Diaporadoes.The line " And loud and high we'll raise the cry, "Revenge for Skibbereen!" is the battle cry of Ireland's 80 million Diasporadoes scattered around the planet today.

The Irish Singer's Own Book in Boston, 1880 credited this song to Patrick Carpenter, a poet and native of Skibbereen. It was published in 1915 where Herbert Hughes said it had been found in County Tyrone. It is sung here by Ronnie Drew.

It is today the anthem of Irish immigrants worldwide or the Rebels Yell of Irish Diasporadoes.The line " And loud and high we'll raise the cry, "Revenge for Skibbereen!" is the battle cry of Ireland's 80 million Diasporadoes scattered around the planet today.In the song a son asks his father why he left the village of Skibbereen in Cork, Ireland, to live in another country to which the father explains to him the British occupation in his homeland. It ends with the Rebels Yell, "Revenge for Skibereen," expressed by the son. Again today Ireland's youth are being battered by a gombeen police state with the prospect of emigration instead of education, as the only way to a better life, because of fierce cuts to sponsor an Anglo-Irish British bank. Today the Rebels Yell can be found by the same name HERE

The Rebels Yell
O, father dear I often hear you speak of Erin's IsleHer lofty scenes,
her valleys green, her mountains rude and wild
They say it is a lovely land wherein a prince might dwell
So why did you abandon it, the reason to me tell
My son, I loved my native land with energy and pride
Till a blight came over all my crops and my sheep and cattle died
The rents and taxes were to pay and I could not them redeem
And that's the cruel reason why I left old Skibbereen

'Tis well I do remember that bleak November (/December) day
When the bailiff and the landlord came to drive us all away
They set the roof on fire with their cursed English spleen
And that's another reason why I left old Skibbereen

Your mother, too, God rest her soul, lay on the snowy ground
She fainted in her anguishing seeing the desolation round
She never rose, but passed away from life to immortal dreams
And that's another reason why I left old Skibbereen

Then sadly I recall the days of gloomy forty-eight.
I rose in vengeance with the boys to battle again' fate.
We were hunted through the mountains as traitors to the queen
,And that, my boy, is the reason why I left old Skibbereen.

Oh you were only two years old and feeble was your frameI
could not leave you with my friends for you bore your father's name
So I wrapped you in my cóta mór at the dead of night unseen
And I heaved a sigh and I said goodbye to dear old Skibereen

Well father dear, the day will come when on vengeance we will call
And Irishmen both stout and tall will rally unto the call
I'll be the man to lead the van beneath the flag of green
And loud and high we'll raise the cry, "Revenge for Skibbereen!"

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The Origin Of 'The Rebels Yell' Song