Green Flag of Erin

DESCRIPTION: An song favoring "De Valera" over Colonel Lynch and his supporters, who "our country have sold" for the East Clare MP seat. The rest of the song is about "the banner of freedom, The Green White and Gold," the flag of the "republic we'll have"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (IRClare01)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic political
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1917 - Eamon De Valera defeats Patrick Lynch in the East Clare MP bi-election
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #18469
RECORDINGS:
Michael Flanagan, "Green Flag of Erin" (on IRClare01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "DeValera Election Song" (subject)
NOTES [155 words]: Notes to IRClare01: "The East Clare by-election of 1917 played a vital part in the movement towards Irish independence.... Newly released from prison and having narrowly avoided execution for his part in the Rebellion, Eamon De Valera easily took the seat." - BS
Not only was De Valera elected to the British parliament on July 11, 1917, but he was even elected to a seat that had formerly been held by the brother of John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Nationalist party (i.e. the moderate Irish faction); see Terry Golway, For the Cause of Liberty, p. 251. This was the third in a series of by-elections in which pro-Republic candidates defeated "Nationalist" (moderate) candidates (see Peter and Fiona Somerset fry, A History of Ireland, pp. 296-296). It was one of the first major tokens of the shift in feeling in Ireland from a desire for Home Rule to a desire for something less dependent on the British government. - RBW
File: RcGrFlEr

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