History of the Song:
 
by Dion Boucicault
(1820-1890)
Oh Paddy dear, and
did you hear the news that is going round
The shamrock is forbid
by law to grow on Irish ground
No more Saint Patrick's Day we'll
keep - his colors can't be seen
For there's a cruel law against
the wearing of the green.
I met with Naper Tandy and he took
me by the hand
And he said, "How's poor old Ireland and how does
she stand?"
She's the mosy distressful country that ever yet was
seen
For they're hangin men an' women for the wearing of the
green
And if the color we must wear is England's cruel
Red
Let it remind us of the blood that Ireland has shed
Then
pull the shamrock from your hat, and throw it on the sod
And
never fear, "'twill take root there, tho' under foot 'tis
trod".
When the law can stop the blades of grass from growing
as they grow
And when the leaves in summer-time, their color dare
not show
Then I will change the color, too, I wear in my
caubeen
But 'til that day, please God, I'll stick to wearing of
the Green.
Daniel O'Connell, the
Irish leader commemorated in the last stanza, died in 1847.
This ballad updates a famous ballad of the same title, in
circulation since the turn of the century, and later revised
by the Irish-American playwright Dion Boucicault
(1820?-1890).
James Naper Tandy, the Irish
revolutionary hero, died in 1803.
Dion Boucicault was,
despite the French name, an Irishman born in Dublin. At the
time, inspired by America's successful revolution against
British rule, many Irish thought the time was ripe for
independence. The color green became a symbol of sympathy for
Irish independence, and the British actually began executing
persons found wearing anything of the color green.
The
pen, however, is mightier than the sword, and this powerful
poem was the response. Napper Tandy, mentioned in the poem,
was in fact a shopkeeper in Dublin who, having been identified
by the British as a freedom fighter, had to flee to France.
Boucicault fled the country, coming to America.
This is
poetry of which revolution was born.
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