Blacksmith of Cloghroe, The

DESCRIPTION: "The rebels' hall of meeting was the forge of sweet Cloghroe" where they learned the soldier's drill. Sean Magee, the blacksmith there, is now buried in Kilmurry. "Ireland lost a gallant son in the blacksmith of Cloghroe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
KEYWORDS: rebellion death Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCanainn-SongsOfCork, pp. 66,122, "The Blacksmith of Cloghroe" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Skibbereen" (tune, per OCanainn-SongsOfCork)
NOTES [93 words]: OCanainn-SongsOfCork calls this "another patriotic song of West Cork." I assume that it is -- like many of the other songs in the collection -- a song of the Irish Civil Wars of 1920-1922. - BS
The flip side is, blacksmiths had often been at the center of earlier rebellions, simply because they could make pikes. By 1920, even the Irish had realized that pikes were useless against modern weapons. But, of course, the flip side is that rebellions such as 1848 and 1867 had almost no casualties. So the Civil War does indeed seem the most likely occasion. - RBW
File: OCan066

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