Rouse, Hibernians

DESCRIPTION: "Rouse, Hibernians, from your slumbers! ... Our French brethren are at hand." Erin's sons defeat the tyrants now. "Apostate Orange ... Sure you might know how Irish freemen Soon would put your Orange down" "Vive la, United heroes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1798 (Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion)
KEYWORDS: rebellion Ireland nonballad patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Aug 22, 1798 - 1100 French troops under General Humbert land at Killala Bay in County Mayo. He would surrender on Sept. 8, and by May 23 the Mayo rising had been suppressed with some brutality
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion 18, "Rouse, Hibernians" (1 text, 1 tune)
Moylan-TheAgeOfRevolution-1776-1815 113, "Rouse Hibernians" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Viva La!" (tune)
cf. "Men of the West" (subject)
NOTES [157 words]: Zimmerman-SongsOfIrishRebellion quotes Musgrave: "This was found on the mother of Dougherty, a United Irishman who was killed by Woollaghan at Delgany, in the county of Wicklow in autumn 1798. She was seen to throw it out of her pocket, yet she swore she never saw it." - BS
This is rather a curious piece, since the 1798 rebellion in Wicklow and the east was already over by the time General Humbert made the first French landing in the west of Ireland. For details on that event, see the notes to "Men of the West."
To this piece Hamish Henderson compares the song "Vive la Republican," collected from Bell Robertson by Greig. The similarity is more thematic than lyric; the version printed by Henderson has none of the ethnic/religious tension of the Irish. For discussion, see pp. 9-10 of Henderson's essay in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition). - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Zimm018

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