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| St. Patrick Tara |
Two of the most popular and indeed excellent ballads of the first world war were written by the Scottish/Australian singer-songwriter Eric Bogle (The Band Played Waltzing Matilda and The Green Fields of France) and are no celebration of anything that went on. Exhortations to pack up your troubles or it was a long way to anywhere, would I imagine have got little airtime from anyone who survived the horrors of the trenches and I wouldn't attempt them myself in a public house in 1919. But maybe I'm wrong. In this neck of the woods probably alien to the mindset and more at home in the Dublin drawing room or theatre hall. There may be very good war poems or songs written by others than Francis Ledwidge or Tom Kettle but most people wouldn't be familiar with them and the jingoistic ballads were consigned to the nostalgia set or to those who hadn't been there. Pleasant and all as they were.All our songs were sad! There is an anthology of war poems covering the period 1914 to 1945 "Earth Voices Whispering" an anthology of Irish War Poems by Gerald Dawe/Blackstaff Press but had to look up the info and yet to read. When you consider the number of Irish men who fought in the great war; where are the songs and poems? You could probably name a few but that's it. Hearts and minds! On the other side..... A subject to get back to.
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