Irish Volunteers, The

DESCRIPTION: Tim McDonald is from a family of volunteers in Irish wars. He emigrates to the U.S. and volunteers in the Union's Sixty Ninth. He toasts McClellan and Irish Meagher and Nugent, and their Irish volunteers
AUTHOR: Joe English (source: MoloneyCrownFarFromShamrockShore)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1866 (written "during the war" according to MoloneyCrownFarFromShamrockShore)
KEYWORDS: army battle Civilwar war emigration death America Ireland family soldier
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
BillyHolmesComicLocalLyrics, p. 22, "Irish Volunteers" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Duncan, _A Fifers Collection of Tunes for the 69th NYSV, The Irish Brigade_, (1 text, tune on the facing page)
RECORDINGS:
David Kincaid, "The Irish Volunteer" on "The Irish Volunteer" (Rykodisc RCD 10395, 1998)
Mick Moloney, "The Irish Volunteers" (on MoloneyCrownFarFromShamrockShore, MoloneyCrownFarFromShamrockShore)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Irish Jaunting Car," i.e. "The Bonnie Blue Flag" (tune)
NOTES [211 words]: In a personal communication, June 10, 2025, Stephen Duncan writes that -- like Mick Moloney, who also cites Dan Milner -- he first heard this song from David Kincaid. I have included Kincaid's recording of "The Irish Volunteers." David Kincaid's liner notes say only that he found lyrics for his album "on broadsides, or in lyric books, with only allusions to the airs or jigs to which the lyrics were written." He writes that, "Like many Irish songs of the war, 'The Irish Volunteer,' [was] probably written in early 1862." - BS
For background on the 69th New York Regiment of Thomas Meagher's famous Irish Brigade, see the notes to "By the Hush." Thomas F. al brevets for gaMeagher was the original commander of the Irish Brigade (originally the 63rd, 69th, and 88th New York regiments). Robert Nugent was the original colonel of the 69th New York. I find it interesting that, although he received several brevets for gallantry during the war, and liked soldiering enough that he stayed in the army once hostilities were over, he was never promoted brigadier general. Anti-Irish prejudice? Incompetence? I don't now. As for army commander George B. McClellan, if this song was written while he was still in charge of the army, it must date from late 1861 or 1862. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: MolIrVo

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