Robert A Mosher's Posts - The Wild Geese2024-03-29T15:22:27ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosherhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/12161894064?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blog/feed?user=1f2kh37ntoz8x&xn_auth=noJews Who Fought in Famed Irish Brigade's 28th Massachusettstag:thewildgeese.irish,2016-04-28:6442157:BlogPost:1903752016-04-28T22:00:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716738?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716738?profile=RESIZE_320x320" style="padding: 10px;" width="236"></img></a> <strong><span class="font-size-5">I</span>n my research on the history of the 28<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Volunteers</strong>, a Boston Irish regiment raised to be a part of Thomas Meagher’s Irish Brigade, the most surprising find was the identification of three Jewish soldiers who served in its ranks. The three were included in a 19<sup>th</sup> century effort by Jewish…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716738?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="236" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84716738?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="236" class="align-right" style="padding: 10px;"/></a><strong><span class="font-size-5">I</span>n my research on the history of the 28<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Volunteers</strong>, a Boston Irish regiment raised to be a part of Thomas Meagher’s Irish Brigade, the most surprising find was the identification of three Jewish soldiers who served in its ranks. The three were included in a 19<sup>th</sup> century effort by Jewish activist Simon Wolf to create and publish a directory of Jewish veterans of the American Civil War. That directory can now be read online at <a href="http://www.jewish-history.com/database.html">http://www.jewish-history.com/database.html</a></p>
<p>By date of their enlistment in the 28<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Volunteers, the three are:</p>
<p>* <strong>Bernard Hart</strong> enlisted and was mustered into Company D, 28<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, on August 13, 1862, as a private. Recorded as born in New York City but residing in Boston at the time of his enlistment at the age of 38, he was reportedly working as a laborer. He was wounded on the last day of the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. He would be discharged due to those wounds on February 20, 1864, probably from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satterlee_General_Hospitalhttp://" target="_blank">Satterlee General Hospital</a> in <a href="http://www.uchs.net/Satterlee/satterleehospital.htmlhttp://" target="_blank">Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</a> After the war, he joined Paul Revere Post (Massachusetts Post No. 88) of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) in Quincy, Massachusetts.</p>
<p>* <strong>Charles Waterman</strong> enlisted August 11, 1863, joining Company H. This was some five weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg, making it unlikely that he met Private Hart. Waterman reportedly resided in New York at the time of his enlistment, at age 21, working as a farmer. He was wounded on May 31, 1864, at Cold Harbor, Virginia, and promoted to sergeant May 25, 1865. He mustered out from the 28<sup>th</sup> Massachusetts Volunteers on June 30,1865, at Washington, D.C., from Company D of the then five-company battalion.</p>
<p>* <strong>Albert Lehmann</strong> enlisted April 21, 1864, as a private in Company K. Twenty-two years old at the time of his enlistment, he reported his residence as Detroit, Michigan, and his trade as silver plater. He was wounded at Petersburg, Virginia, on June 16, 1864, and again at Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, on March 25, 1865. He would be discharged due to his wounds on July 6 1865 (possibly from hospital as the regiment had already mustered out in Washington City a week earlier).</p>Tracing the Irish at War: From Stono Ferry to New Orleans: Part 3tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-04-05:6442157:BlogPost:1523252015-04-05T22:30:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711147?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711147?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="406"></img></a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-first" target="_self">Read part one</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-first-1" target="_self">Read part two…</a></p>
<p></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711147?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="406" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711147?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="406" class="align-left"/></a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-first" target="_self">Read part one</a></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-first-1" target="_self">Read part two</a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">G</span>eneral Humbert returned to France</strong> in a prisoner exchange. He would serve with the Armies of Mayence, Danube and Helvetia. Then he embarked for Saint Domingo and participated in several Caribbean campaigns. There it was rumored that he had an affair with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauline_Bonaparte">Pauline Bonaparte</a>, wife of his commanding officer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Leclerc">Charles Leclerc</a>. Humbert was returned to France by order of General Leclerc in October 1802, for "prevarications, and liaison relationships with organizers of the inhabitants and with leaders of brigands."</p>
<p>As a committed republican, Humbert was unhappy at Napoleon's Imperial pretensions and especially his coronation as Emperor in 1804. Humbert was in fact dismissed from the army in 1803, at first retiring to Morbihan in Brittany. In 1808 he emigrated to the now American city of New Orleans, in Louisiana, home to a growing French community including other veterans and refugees from Napoleon’s France. Once there, Humbert reportedly made the acquaintance of pirate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Lafitte">Jean Lafitte</a>. In 1813 he joined in an unsuccessful rebellion against Spanish rule in Mexico.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the United States found itself at war again with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_1812">Great Britain</a>, as in 1812 it objected to repeated mistreatment of both the American nation and its citizens at British hands.</p>
<p>In the second year of that war, the British resolved to focus on to New Orleans having already heavily ravaged Atlantic Coast of the United States. Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Pakenham agreed to replace <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ross_%28British_Army_officer%29">General Robert Ross</a> as commander of the British North American army after Ross was killed on September 12 during skirmishing prior to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_North_Point">Battle of North Point</a> near Baltimore.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson, now a Major General campaigning in Florida against both the Spanish and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creek_War">Indians</a>, wasnotifying Washington of the growing British threat. Stopping to fortify Mobile, Alabama, Jackson moved to meet the anticipated British invasion. By December 1, Major General Andrew Jackson reached New Orleans with less than 2,000 men but the promise of a total final force of more than 12,000 to counter the roughly 6,000 British – almost all veterans of Wellington’s victorious Peninsular Army. Roughly a week later, on December 8, the British reached the region. .</p>
<p>Augmenting Jackson’s small army from New Orleans were a battalion of free Blacks, a battalion of New Orleans Volunteers, and a few veterans of Napoleon’s army including Humbert. Jackson welcomed the French veteran but found that his American troops resisted having him as a commander. Reportedly some of the American troops complained that they couldn’t understand the veteran French general! Humbert became aide, advisor, and an extra pair of eyes.</p>
<p>One moment that illustrated the challenges faced by Humbert and Jackson was when Jackson directed General Humbert to cross the Mississippi River and retake a lost American position. Humbert, in his old uniform, was delighted to accept the assignment. But since Jackson neglected to give him written authority, American officers on the west bank refused to take orders from a man who was not a citizen, and Humbert returned angrily to Jackson's Headquarters. </p>
<p>General Pakenham was having an even more frustrating day. As he rallied his troops near the main American position, grapeshot from US artillery shattered his left knee and killed his horse. As he was helped to his feet by his senior aide-de-camp, Major Duncan MacDougall, Pakenham was wounded a second time in his right arm. With MacDougall’s assistance, Pakenham mounted MacDougall's horse and yet more grapeshot ripped through his spine. Fatally wounded, he died as he was being carried off the battlefield on a stretcher at the age of 36. His last words were reputed to be telling MacDougall to find General Lambert to tell him to assume command as well as "Tell him... tell Lambert to send forward the reserves." Ironically, MacDougall had performed similar service the Pakenham’s predecessor General Ross when he was fatally wounded the previous year. The battle ended in defeat for the British. </p>
<p>The reality unknown to everyone in New Orleans was that a general ceasefire for the war had already been declared by the Treaty of Ghent, signed in the city of Ghent in Belgium on 24 December 1814, though a formal peace would wait until the Treaty was ratified in Washington and London. The news of the treaty signing only reached New Orleans in February.</p>
<p>The victorious American commander, Major General Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845), would go onto become the 7<sup>th</sup> President of the United States. He would eventually retire from public life and return to his home, the Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee where he is buried.</p>
<p>General Jean Joseph Amable Humbert (22 August 1767 – 3 January 1823) spent his final years in New Orleans, though reportedly not without one more adventure in Buenos Aires alongside rebels there. Again in New Orleans he was a schoolteacher and somewhat of a local celebrity, appearing from time to time in his old French military uniform and under possibly under the influence. The General is buried in St. Louis Cemetery #1.</p>
<p>After the death of General Pakenham (19 March 1778 – 8 January 1815), his body was recovered from the battlefield and returned home in a cask of rum. The Honourable Sir Edward Pakenham GCB is buried in the Pakenham family vault in Killucan, Co Westmeath, Ireland.</p>
<p></p>Tracing the Irish at War: From Stono Ferry to New Orleans: Part 2tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-04-03:6442157:BlogPost:1519182015-04-03T02:00:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711385?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711385?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="375"></img></a></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-first" target="_self">Read part one</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">T</span>hat summer of 1781,</strong> a French fleet under the…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711385?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="375" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711385?profile=RESIZE_480x480" class="align-left" width="375"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-first" target="_self">Read part one</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">T</span>hat summer of 1781,</strong> a French fleet under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Joseph_Paul_de_Grasse">Comte de Grasse</a> as well as General Washington's combined French-American army all arrived in Virginia. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Cornwallis,_1st_Marquess_Cornwallis" target="_blank">Cornwallis</a> now found himself trapped in his coastal enclave at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown">Yorktown</a>. He surrendered on October 19, 1781 after about three weeks' siege. Cornwallis pleaded illness and sent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_O%27Hara">Brigadier General Charles O'Hara</a> in his place to surrender his sword formally. Washington had his second-in-command, Benjamin Lincoln (repatriated after his surrender at Charleston) accept Cornwallis' sword. </p>
<p>With the American war ended in 1783, Cornwallis was by 1789 Governor-General and commander in chief in India. Andrew Jackson was a frontier lawyer in the now independent United States.</p>
<p>For France, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution">1789</a> was the year of revolution. A 22 year old French soldier, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Joseph_Amable_Humbert">Jean Joseph Amable Humbert</a>, was a<br/> participant, (born in 1767 in the townland of La Coâre Saint-Nabord, outside Remiremont Vosges). He was soon a sergeant in the National Guard of Lyon, rising through the ranks to become brigadier general on April 9, 1794.</p>
<p>Having participated in the failed attempt to land a French army in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exp%C3%A9dition_d%27Irlande">Ireland in 1796</a>, two years later Humbert was placed in command of part of a new expedition. On <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Rebellion_of_1798">August 23, 1798</a>, he was able to land at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Killala">Killala, Co Mayo</a>, meeting with initial success in the battle of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Castlebar">Castlebar</a>.</p>
<p>A Republic of Connacht was declared and Humbert began with hopes of marching across Ireland and taking Dublin. However, in June, 1798, now 1st Marquis Cornwallis was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Commander-in-Chief in Ireland. London also sent reinforcements, eventually having 60,000 British forces there.</p>
<p><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711485?profile=original" width="340"/>Humbert’s tiny command was only a fragment of the planned French force most of which never reached Irish shores. Blocked from reaching Dublin, Humbert and his Irish allies were defeated in a brief battle of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ballinamuck">Ballinamuck</a> on September 18, 1798. Humbert surrendered but many of the Irish were denied that chance and Cornwallis also ordered the execution by lot of a number of Irish rebels captured.</p>
<p>Also in Ireland was Major <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Pakenham">Edward Pakenham</a>, 'Ned' to his friends. Pakenham was born at Pakenham Hall, now<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullynally_Castle">Tullynally Castle</a>, County Westmeath, Ireland. Educated at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Royal_School,_Armagh">The Royal School, Armagh</a>, his family purchased his commission when he was only sixteen. In Ireland in 1798 he was serving in one of the regular British army cavalry units there - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/23rd_Light_Dragoons">23<sup>rd</sup> Light Dragoons</a>. As a regular British Army officer, Pakenham according to some sources may also have served as an aide to Cornwallis.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-to-the" target="_self">Read part three</a></p>Tracing the Irish at War: From Stono Ferry to New Orleans: Part 1tag:thewildgeese.irish,2015-03-30:6442157:BlogPost:1517382015-03-30T19:30:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84710988?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84710988?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350"></img></a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">J</span>ust over 200 years ago</strong> this past January came a climactic moment in military history with numerous surprising Irish connections. The battle fought by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson">Andrew Jackson</a> that saved New Orleans also brought closure to a…</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84710988?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="350" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84710988?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="350" class="align-left"/></a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">J</span>ust over 200 years ago</strong> this past January came a climactic moment in military history with numerous surprising Irish connections. The battle fought by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Jackson">Andrew Jackson</a> that saved New Orleans also brought closure to a remarkable series of encounters in, of, and related to Ireland.</p>
<p>Andrew Jackson’s Scots-Irish parents lived in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boneybefore">Boneybefore, Co Antrim</a>, from which they left for the Carolina colonies in 1765. The future general and president was born in the American colonies on March 15, 1767.</p>
<p>Some 12 years later, the American Colonists were fighting for independence from Britain and young Andrew Jackson joined his older brothers in the ranks of the local North Carolina militia. The youngster would serve as a courier. At the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stono_Ferry">Battle of Stono Ferry</a> on June 20, 1779, Andrew and his brother Robert were captured. Their brother Hugh Jackson died from heat exhaustion in the battle.</p>
<p>In July, 1779, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Cornwallis rejoined General Clinton, the overall British commander, in theSouthern colonies. The two generals launched ‘the southern strategy’ which brought a large force south to successfully besiege Charleston early the next year, 1780. The American commander, Major General Benjamin Lincoln, surrendered on May 12 along with some 5,000 American troops – a tragic record that would stand for almost one hundred years.</p>
<p>Clinton turned the South over to Cornwallis, along with a modest force of 3,000 British, Hessian, and provincial troops, and returned to New York. Cornwallis expected to recruit more Southern Loyalists to expand his numbers. In August 1780, Cornwallis routed General Horatio Gates’s larger but relatively untried army at the Battle of Camden. With the rebellion in the South fading way, the British advanced into North Carolina.</p>
<p>But efforts to recruit Loyalists were dealt significant blows when a large gathering was defeated at Kings Mountain, only a day's march from the main army, and then another large detachment was decisively defeated at Cowpens. Cornwallis then clashed with the rebuilt Continental army under General Nathanael Greene at Guilford Courthouse in North Carolina, winning a Pyrrhic victory with a bayonet charge against a numerically superior enemy.</p>
<p>However, the constant marching and fighting fatigued Cornwallis’ army and he was in growing need of resupply. Having moved to Wilmington on the Carolina coast, Cornwallis received dispatches informing him that another British army under Generals William Phillips and Benedict Arnold had been sent to Virginia. Cornwallis decided to join forces with General Phillips, a personal friend, but Phillips died the week before the rendezvous. Cornwallis took command of the entire force.</p>
<p>In March 1781, Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette to Virginia with 3,200 men to challenge the 7,200 troops now under Cornwallis. Lafayette restricted himself to skirmishing with the British while also gathering reinforcements. Clinton, in New York, now ordered Cornwallis to choose a position on the Virginia Peninsula—referred to in contemporary letters as the "Williamsburg Neck"—and construct a fortified naval post to shelter ships of the line.</p>
<p>At about that same time, Elizabeth Jackson secured her sons’ release, but Robert Jackson died on April 27, 1781. Knowing that Andrew would recover, his mother volunteered to nurse the British-held American prisoners of war, suffering from an outbreak of cholera on the two prison ships in Charleston. However, she fell ill herself and died from the disease in November 1781. Earlier, while captive, Jackson reportedly refused an order by Major Coffin (of the loyalist units) to clean his boots. The angry American-born British officer lashed out with his sword, leaving young Andrew with scars on his head and left hand – and this along with his family losses set him firmly against Britain for the rest of his life.</p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.irish/profiles/blogs/from-the-battle-of-stono-ferry-to-the-battle-of-yorktown-first-1" target="_self">Read part two here.</a></p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711347?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84711347?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p>He May Be the Most Famous / Infamous Irish Soldier You've Probably Never Known Abouttag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-12-01:6442157:BlogPost:1301202014-12-01T21:00:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708595?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708595?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> I</span>t was not uncommon</strong> for Queen Victoria’s soldiers to be Irishmen or to have Irish connections, but few of them had a career such as that of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Roberts,_1st_Earl_Roberts" target="_blank">Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh…</a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a width="750" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708595?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708595?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>I</span>t was not uncommon</strong> for Queen Victoria’s soldiers to be Irishmen or to have Irish connections, but few of them had a career such as that of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Roberts,_1st_Earl_Roberts" target="_blank">Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts</a>, 1st Earl Roberts VC, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, KStJ, VD, PC – that first pair of letters “VC” signify that he was also a recipient of the Victoria Cross (for Americans think Congressional Medal of Honor). The letters “KP” also indicate that he had been named a member of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_St._Patrick" target="_blank">Order of St Patrick</a>. He was loved by his troops and immortalized by Rudyard Kipling – and you’ve probably never heard of “Bobs.”</p>
<p></p>
<div align="center"><table width="601" border="0">
<tbody><tr><td><p align="center"><span class="font-size-3"><b>Bobs</b></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p> </p>
<div align="center"><table width="601" border="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody><tr><td><div align="center"><table border="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody><tr><td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p align="center">(<i>Field Marshal Lord Roberts of Kandahar</i>)</p>
<p><br/> THERE’S a little red-faced man,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Which is Bobs,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Rides the tallest ’orse ’e can—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> <i>Our</i> Bobs.</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>If it bucks or kicks or rears,</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 5</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>’E can sit for twenty years</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>With a smile round both ’is ears—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Can’t yer, Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> </p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Then ’ere’s to Bobs Bahadur—little Bobs, Bobs, Bobs!</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>’E’s our pukka Kandahader—</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 10</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Fightin’ Bobs, Bobs, Bobs!</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>’E’s the Dook of <i>Aggy Chel;</i> <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/364/206.html#note206.1">1</a></p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>’E’s the man that done us well,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>An’ we’ll follow ’im to ’ell—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Won’t we, Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 15</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> </p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>If a limber’s slipped a trace,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> ’Ook on Bobs.</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>If a marker’s lost ’is place,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Dress by Bobs.</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>For ’e’s eyes all up ’is coat,</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 20</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>An’ a bugle in ’is throat,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>An’ you will not play the goat</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Under Bobs.</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> </p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>’E’s a little down on drink</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Chaplain Bobs;</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 25</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>But it keeps us outer Clink—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Don’t it, Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>So we will not complain</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Tho’ ’e’s water on the brain,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>If ’e leads us straight again—</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 30</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Blue-light Bobs.</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> </p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>If you stood ’im on ’is head,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Father Bobs,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>You could spill a quart of lead</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Outer Bobs.</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 35</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>’E’s been at it thirty years,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>An-amassin’ souveneers</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>In the way o’ slugs an’ spears—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Ain’t yer Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> </p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>What ’e does not know o’ war,</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 40</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Gen’ral Bobs,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>You can arst the shop next door—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Can’t they, Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Oh, ’e’s little but he’s wise;</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>’E’s terror for ’is size,</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 45</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>An’—<i>’e—does—not—advertize</i>—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Do yer, Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> </p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Now they’ve made a bloomin’ Lord</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Outer Bobs,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Which was but ’is fair reward—</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 50</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Weren’t it, Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>So ’e’ll wear a coronet</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Where ’is ’elmet used to set;</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>But we know you won’t forget—</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Will yer, Bobs?</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 55</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> </p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Then ’ere’s to Bobs Bahadur—little Bobs, Bobs, Bobs,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>Pocket-Wellin’ton ’an <i>arder</i>— <a href="http://www.bartleby.com/364/206.html#note206.2">2</a></p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Fightin’ Bobs, Bobs, Bobs!</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>This ain’t no bloomin’ ode,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>But you’ve ’elped the soldier’s load,</p>
</td>
<td valign="top"><p align="right"><i> 60</i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p>An’ for benefits bestowed,</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr><td><p> Bless yer, Bobs!</p>
</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p> </p>
<p>Although he was born in Cawnpore, India, both of Roberts’ parents had Irish roots. His father, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Roberts" target="_blank">General Sir Abraham Roberts</a>, was a native of County Waterford while his mother, though born in Edinburgh, was the daughter of Major Abraham Bunbury from Kilfeacle in County Tipperary.</p>
<p>Roberts’ father commanded the Bengal (European) Regiment of the Bengal Presidency Army. In 1858 in the wake of the Indian Mutiny, the regiment would become The 1<sup>st</sup> Bengal Fusiliers and then the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/101st_Regiment_of_Foot_%28Royal_Bengal_Fusiliers%29" target="_blank">101st (Royal Bengal Fusiliers) Regiment</a> of the British Army. The 1881 Caldwell Reforms would see the 101<sup>st</sup> combine with the 104<sup>th</sup> (Bengal Fusiliers) Regiment to become <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Munster_Fusiliers" target="_blank">The Royal Munster Fusiliers</a>of the British Army.</p>
<p>Schooled at Eton and Sandhurst, Roberts would follow in his father’s footstep and join the East India Company army’s Bengal Artillery, later transferring to the Bengal Horse Artillery. This placed him in the middle of Indian Mutiny of 1857, launching him on a career that would see him fighting Britain’s colonial enemies in India, Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Afghanistan, and South Africa. He would earn the Victoria Cross for single-handedly attacking two mutineers and recovering from them a British standard they had captured.</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708797?profile=original"><img class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708797?profile=original" width="297"/></a></p>
<p>Transferring to the British Army as the armies of India were disbanded after the crushing of the rebellion in India, Roberts would go on to serve in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Expedition_to_Abyssinia" target="_blank">Expedition to Abyssinia</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Anglo-Afghan_War" target="_blank">Second Anglo-Afghan War</a> before leading British Forces to success in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War" target="_blank">Second Boer War</a>. He also became the last Commander-in-Chief of the Forces before the post was abolished in 1904.</p>
<p>In South Africa, Roberts would be immortalized by two events – Rudyard Kipling’s poem and the general’s decision to introduce ‘concentration camps’ in his campaign to finally break the Boer Commandos and force them to surrender. The plan was to deprive the Commandos of the support of the local population by concentrating that population, mostly women and children, in camps where the British would house and feed them and isolate them from the Boer fighters still in the field. The Spanish had used the same idea in their struggle with Cuban rebels on that Caribbean Island. Unfortunately for the reportedly more than 26,000 Afrikaans women and children who would die in the South African camps, Roberts and his successor in command <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Kitchener,_1st_Earl_Kitchener#Anglo-Boer_War" target="_blank">General Kitchener</a> failed to learn from the Spanish experience in Cuba about just how hard this plan was to successfully execute and he failed to recognize and correct that failure.</p>
<p>In 1913, Roberts was approached by organizers of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_Volunteers" target="_blank">Ulster Volunteers</a> about becoming their advisor, he declined as being too old. However, Roberts recommended another old India Army hand, Lt-Gen <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Richardson_%28Indian_Army_officer%29" title="George Richardson (Indian Army officer)">Sir George Richardson</a><u>.</u> Roberts would later find himself entangled in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curragh_incident" target="_blank">Curragh incident</a> when he strongly urged and warned the government and the Chief of the Imperial General Staff against using coercion to disarm the Ulster Volunteers and against splitting the British Army in the attempt. Although no longer on active service and given no role in the war by the government, Roberts was in France visiting the Indian troops fighting the war there when he died of pneumonia at St Omer, France, on 14 November 1914.</p>
<p></p>Building Your Irish Librarytag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-11-05:6442157:BlogPost:1262062014-11-05T17:00:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708072?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708072?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450"></img></a> I</span>reland’s history, like that of most countries,</strong> is a mixture of history, legend, myth, ballad, and story. Although part of my family came from County Tyrone in the years before the Famine, any stories from the family might have brought over seem to have slipped away over the…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708072?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="450" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708072?profile=RESIZE_480x480" width="450" class="align-right"/></a>I</span>reland’s history, like that of most countries,</strong> is a mixture of history, legend, myth, ballad, and story. Although part of my family came from County Tyrone in the years before the Famine, any stories from the family might have brought over seem to have slipped away over the years. As a result, my real introduction to Ireland and its stories came from hearing the songs and then looking for the truth behind them, eventually from visiting Ireland, and always from reading.</p>
<p>As an historian, my preferred way of learning is to read the tales, stories, and histories. For example, one of the earliest books I read and which made a lasting impression was Thomas Flanagan’s novel <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-year-of-the-french/" target="_blank">“The Year of the French”.</a> Flanagan’s book is a fairly accurate if fictionalized account of the arrival of the French army in Ireland in 1798 in belated support of the Rising of that year. While in Ireland, I traced some of the route taken by the French and Irish forces between “Killala’s Broad Bay” and Ballinamuck.<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/books/imprints/classics/the-year-of-the-french/"></a></p>
<p>Another work, of history this time, that made a major impression was Robert Kee’s three volume<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Green-Flag-History-Nationalism-ebook/dp/B002RI9YGY/ref=dp_kinw_strp_1" target="_blank">“The Green Flag, A History of Irish Nationalism”</a> later transformed into a 13-part television mini-series “Ireland – A Television History”. I enjoyed this book so much that I sent a copy to my mother for a Christmas present soon afterwards.</p>
<p>Like most novels and histories, of course, both of these works are compiled second hand accounts, but my historian’s training emphasized the importance of first hand eyewitnesses accounts and first hand sources. For Irish history, these are often harder to come by here in the U.S. and often rather expensive. Fortunately for us today at least in the U.S.A., the internet has brought many of these first hand accounts within easy reach through the magic of the internet via <a href="http://books.google.com/" target="_blank">http://books.google.com/</a>, <a href="https://archive.org/" target="_blank">https://archive.org/</a>, <a href="http://www.hathitrust.org/" target="_blank">The Haithi Trust Digital Library</a>, or <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/" target="_blank">Project Gutenberg</a>. With the help of these and other websites, my Kindle now contains a small library of books about the 1916-1923 period written and published close to the actual events often by eyewitnesses and even participants, as well as original collections of poetry and songs.</p>
<p>This books will also present the full range of viewpoints, positions, and interpretations of the events of 1916-1923 which I suggest but will not insist you read because all of them can offer insights into what actually happened and how different people saw and interpreted the events they witnessed. You don’t need to read this with the expectation of it changing your mind, but a differing point of view can help you gain a deeper and fuller understanding of your own interpretations, views, and opinions about the events of the past and of the present.</p>
<p>By way of illustration, I’ll list a few of them with one or more of the urls in the hopes that one of them will work for you. Given variations in copyright laws, I cannot guarantee that all or even any of these will work for all of you but we’ll hope for the best and I’d like to hear who finds they cannot get any of them to work.</p>
<p>You can also search the collections accessible through these various websites for additional books on Ireland and books beyond the theme of 1916-1923. The key is to carefully choose your search terms and set the parameters to either broaden or narrow your search. The following works were the results of two searches using “Ireland, 1916” and “Dublin, 1916” with no other limits to set out a quite broad search.</p>
<p>Selections from my Kindle:</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>"History of the Sinn Fein Movement and the Irish Rebellion of 1916"</strong>, by Francis P. Jones, published by P J Kenedy & Sons, in 1917 (447 pages). Account by an American author and friend of Sinn Fein and a number of its leaders, one of the earliest to appear after the events so there are things reported in here that we later learn we not correct.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=YUINAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=YUINAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/historyofsinnfei00jone">https://archive.org/details/historyofsinnfei00jone</a></p>
<p><a href="http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002194853;view=1up;seq=33">http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015002194853;view=1up;seq=33</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>"Gun Running for Casement in the Easter Rebellion"</strong>, by Karl Spindler, published in 1921 by W. Collins sons. 242 pages long. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Spindler_%28naval_officer%29" target="_blank">Karl Spindler</a> was the German naval officer who commanded the merchant ship posing as the Aud in order to deliver rifles, machine guns, and ammunition to the Irish rebels in 1916. This is his post-war account of that experience.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=TALSAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=TALSAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45454" target="_blank">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45454</a></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/gunrunningforcas00spin" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/gunrunningforcas00spin</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>"The Irish Rebellion of 1916 and Its Martyrs: Erin’s tragic Easter"</strong>, by Maurice Joy, published by Devin-Adair, in 1916. 425 pages. A compilation of firsthand accounts fromPadraic Colum, Maurice Joy, James Reidy, Sidney Gifford, Rev. T. Gavan Duffy, Mary M. Colum, Mary J. Ryan, and Seumas O'Brien and edited by Maurice Joy and published soon after the Rising.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Ea9nAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=Ea9nAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/irishrebelliona01joygoog">https://archive.org/details/irishrebelliona01joygoog</a></p>
<p><a href="http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000234665">http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000234665</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>"Six Days of the Irish Republic: A Narrative and Critical Account of the Latest Phase of Irish Politics"</strong>, Louis G. Redmond-Howard, published by John W Luce in 1916. 131 pages long. Prolific author and journalist Louis G. Redmond Howard , nephew of John Redmond, discusses the Easter Rising.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=HDKdeqNez3wC&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=HDKdeqNez3wC&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24296">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24296</a></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/sixdaysoftheiris24296gut">https://archive.org/details/sixdaysoftheiris24296gut</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>"The Unbroken Tradition"</strong>, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Connolly_O%27Brien" target="_blank">Nora Connolly O'Brien</a>, daughter of James Connolly, published by Boni and Liveright in 1918. 202 pages.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=9zlYAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=9zlYAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PR3#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/irishrebellionof00obri">https://archive.org/details/irishrebellionof00obri</a></p>
<p><a href="http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011718255">http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011718255</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>"Trial of Sir Roger Casement"</strong>, by Sir Roger Casement, published by Cromarty Law Book Company, 1917. 304 pages.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=RItmAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=RItmAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="http://archive.org/stream/trialofsirrogerc00caseuoft/trialofsirrogerc00caseuoft_djvu.txt">http://archive.org/stream/trialofsirrogerc00caseuoft/trialofsirrogerc00caseuoft_djvu.txt</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>"The Irish Orators: a History of Ireland's Fight for Freedom"</strong>, by Claude Gernade Bowers, published by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1916. 528 pages.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=95dnAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=95dnAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>"Poems of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood"</strong>, a collection of works by Padraic Colum, Thomas MacDonagh, Joseph Mary Plunkett, and Sir Roger Casement, published by Small, Maynard in 1916. 60 pages</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=URZaAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=URZaAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>"The Golden Joy"</strong>, poems by Thomas MacDonagh, published by O'Donoghue in 1906. 85 pages.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=VDINAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=VDINAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007666288" target="_blank">http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007666288</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>"What Could Germany do for Ireland?"</strong>, by James K. McGuire, published by Wolfe Tone, 1916. 309 pages. Mayor of Syracuse, New York and advocate for Ireland and independence with a number of titles to his credit on the subject.</p>
<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kennedy_McGuire">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Kennedy_McGuire</a></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/whatcouldgermany00mcgu">https://archive.org/details/whatcouldgermany00mcgu</a></p>
<p><a href="http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000234670">http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000234670</a></p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Uq1nAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=Uq1nAAAAMAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=ireland,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p>I also found some period literary works of possible interest such as James Joyce’s first published novel - <strong>"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man"</strong>, published in 1922 by W. Huebsch, Incorporated. 299 pages.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=v6YWAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=v6YWAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4217" target="_blank">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4217</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>"The Celtic Dawn: a Survey of the Renascence in Ireland"</strong>, 1889-1916", by Lloyd R Morris, The Macmillan Co, 1917. 251 pages. An early work by American author Lloyd R Morris</p>
<p><a href="http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001058753">http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001058753</a></p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=de8slYj1ewsC&dq=dublin%2C%201916&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q=dublin,%201916&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=de8slYj1ewsC&dq=dublin%2C%201916&pg=PA82#v=onepage&q=dublin,%201916&f=false</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>"John Bull's Other Island: With Preface for Politicians"</strong>, a play written by George Bernard Shaw, published by Brentano's in 1916. 126 pages. Shaw's play about an Englishman in Ireland offers him the playwright and thinker an opportunity to share a number of observations about Ireland, England, their politics, and the two peoples. One of my personal favorites. </p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=FGsWAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=FGsWAAAAYAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3612" target="_blank">http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3612</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3612/3612-h/3612-h.htm" target="_blank">http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3612/3612-h/3612-h.htm</a></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>"National and Historical Ballads,Songs, and Poems"</strong>, by poet and editor <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Davis_%28Young_Irelander%29" target="_blank">Thomas Osborne Davis</a>, published in 1870, Thomas Osborne Davis. You will find the familiar words and sometimes the origins of a number of the songs about Ireland we still enjoy today.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Davis_%28Young_Irelander%29"></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-osborne-davis/">http://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-osborne-davis/</a></p>
<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/nationalhistoric00davi" target="_blank">https://archive.org/details/nationalhistoric00davi</a></p>
<p><a href="http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007706987" target="_blank">http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007706987</a></p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=abYDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=National+and+historical+ballads,+songs,+and+poems&source=bl&ots=J1RVjmOTTd&sig=CletNhRuZ9hUVkhNDHWgq6uZ1_Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iVhaVO74HaT9sAS6hoLwDw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=National%20and%20historical%20ballads%2C%20songs%2C%20and%20poems&f=false" target="_blank">http://books.google.com/books?id=abYDAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA90&lpg=PA90&dq=National+and+historical+ballads,+songs,+and+poems&source=bl&ots=J1RVjmOTTd&sig=CletNhRuZ9hUVkhNDHWgq6uZ1_Y&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iVhaVO74HaT9sAS6hoLwDw&ved=0CD4Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=National%20and%20historical%20ballads%2C%20songs%2C%20and%20poems&f=false</a></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>"The Wild Swans at Coole</strong>", by William Butler Yeats, published by Macmillan, 1919. 114 pages.</p>
<p><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=jDI3AAAAIAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false">http://books.google.com/books?id=jDI3AAAAIAAJ&dq=ireland%2C%201916&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false</a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Each of these offer lots more to read that is of interest and I encourage you to explore what they have on offer! Good hunting and good reading!!</p>
<p></p>'Come On Back, Boys! Give 'Em Hell, God Damn 'Em! We'll Make Coffee Out Of Cedar Creek Tonight!'tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-10-16:6442157:BlogPost:1232582014-10-16T23:00:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707900?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707900?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> I</span>n a sense</strong> (of history), I have a personal recollection of General Phil Sheridan and his arrival at the battlefield at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cedar_Creek" target="_blank">Cedar Creek</a> on October 19, 1864 when he rallied a beaten Union Army and launched…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707900?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707900?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>I</span>n a sense</strong> (of history), I have a personal recollection of General Phil Sheridan and his arrival at the battlefield at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cedar_Creek" target="_blank">Cedar Creek</a> on October 19, 1864 when he rallied a beaten Union Army and launched the counter attack that virtually destroyed Confederate military forces in the Shenandoah Valley. The <a target="_blank">Cedar Creek Battle Animated Map</a> on the Civil War Trust website will allow you to follow the battle as it developed.</p>
<p>The 2001 reenactment of the battle was my first reenacting event portraying a Civil War Union soldier. A ‘fresh fish’ recruit, uniformed and equipped by friends in <a href="http://www.28thmasscob.org/" target="_blank">Company B, 28th Massachusetts Volunteers</a>, I was hooked by the experience. After spending the first day and the first half of the second day of the reenactment as we were repeatedly beaten by hollering hordes clad in gray, butternut, and what-have-you, I hooped and hollered just like the rest of the army as our “Little Phil” galloped along our line, guidon raised in his fist – and then we turned and crushed the rebels in our counterattack and Jubal Early was paid for his visit to Washington D.C. in July, 1864.</p>
<p>Author and poet Herman Melville wrote his own tribute commemorating Sheridan’s Ride:</p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><b>Sheridan at Cedar Creek </b>(October, 1864)</span></p>
<p>Shoe the steed with silver<br/> That bore him to the fray,<br/> When he heard the guns at dawning --<br/> Miles away;<br/> When he heard them calling, calling --<br/> Mount! nor stay:<br/> Quick, or all is lost;<br/> They’ve surprised and stormed the post,<br/> They push your routed host --<br/> Gallop! Retrieve the day.</p>
<p>House the horse in ermine --<br/> For the foam-flake blew<br/> White through the red October;<br/> He thundered into view;<br/> They cheered him in the looming,<br/> Horseman and horse they knew.<br/> The turn of the tide began,<br/> The rally of bugles ran,<br/> He swung his hat in the van;<br/> The electric hoof-spark flew.</p>
<p> Wreathe the steed and lead him --<br/> For the charge he led<br/> Touched and turned the cypress<br/> Into amaranths for the head<br/> Of Philip, king of riders,<br/> Who raised them from the dead.<br/> The camp (at dawning lost),<br/> By eve, recovered---forced,<br/> Rang with laughter of the host<br/> At belated Early fled.</p>
<p>Shroud the horse in sable --<br/> For the mounds they heap!<br/> There is firing in the Valley,<br/> And yet no strife they keep;<br/> It is the parting volley,<br/> It is the pathos deep.<br/> There is glory for the brave<br/> Who lead, and noble save,<br/> But no knowledge in the grave<br/> Where the nameless followers sleep.</p>
<p>The little bantam rooster of an Irishman, Phil Sheridan, has passed into history, legend, and popular culture. Among the many monuments he has left us across the country, the one found in Sheridan Circle, Washington DC, is one of my favorites. The General is portrayed atop Rienzi (later renamed Winchester), the horse that carried him the some 20 miles of his ride from Winchester, Virginia to the battlefield. (You can actually visit <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/union-colonel-phil-sheridans-valiant-horse-124899830/?no-ist" target="_blank">Winchester</a> today at the Smithsonians’s Museum of American History in Washington D.C.)</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708174?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-left" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708174?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p>
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<p>The statue is the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutzon_Borglum" target="_blank">Gutzon Borglum</a> and was erected on this site along Washington DC’s Embassy Row in 1908. You can see more images and information about this and other Washington monuments at <a href="http://www.dcmemorials.com/index_indiv0001556.htm" target="_blank">dcMemorials.com</a>. </p>
<p>It turns out that Borglum did a second somewhat <a href="http://www.cpdit01.com/resources/planning-and-development.fountains-monuments-and-sculptures/Lincoln%20Park" target="_blank">different statue</a> on this theme, installed in 1923, in Chicago north of W. Belmont Avenue and west of N. Lake Shore Drive. </p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708307?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708307?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>It turns out that in addition to being a <a target="_blank">successful commander of cavalry</a> during and after the American Civil War, Sheridan was also instrumental in fighting the great Chicago Fire of 1871 from his Army Headquarters then located in Chicago. He gave the orders for the <a href="http://www.connectingthewindycity.com/2010/05/i-wrote-couple-weeks-ago-about-gutzon.html" target="_blank">demolition of buildings in the path of the fire using explosives</a> to create a firebreak that would halt the fire’s spread. </p>
<p>Sheridan and his famous ride were an early inspiration to filmmakers, the first film apparently being “Sheridan’s Ride” released in 1913. This prompted a satire released the following year called, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311788/" target="_blank">“Sheridan’s Pride”</a> in which the General’s automobile reportedly is rescued from a roadside ditch by an elephant! </p>
<p>Little Phil continues to appear in films about the Civil War and the Indian Wars, with the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/?ref_=nv_home" target="_blank">Internet Movie Data Base</a> listing the following:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102962/">Son of the Morning Star</a> (1991) (TV) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001777/">Dean Stockwell</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090490/">"North and South, Book II"</a> (1986) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0347656/">Clu Gulager</a> (as Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075883/">The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer</a> (1977) (TV) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0182661/">Nicolas Coster</a> <br/> ... aka "Hallmark Hall of Fame: The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer (#27.2)" - USA <i>(anthology series)</i></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844/">Custer of the West</a> (1967) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0862937/">Lawrence Tierney</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058792/">"Branded"</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0531265/">Call to Glory (three parts)</a> (1966) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0681740/">John Pickard</a> (as General Phil Sheridan) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0531259/">A Destiny Which Made Us Brothers</a> (1966) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0271705/">Andrew J. Fenady</a> (as Gen. Phil Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052505/">"The Rebel"</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0683961/">Johnny Yuma at Appomattox</a> (1960) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0271705/">Andrew J. Fenady</a> (as Gen. Philip H. Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047720/">"Cheyenne"</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0540114/">Gold, Glory and Custer - Requiem</a> (1960) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0229697/">Lawrence Dobkin</a> (as Lt Gen Phillip H. Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050073/">"Wagon Train"</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0743090/">The Danny Benedict Story</a> (1959) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0443762/">Stacy Keach Sr.</a> (as General Phil Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0044259/">"Death Valley Days"</a> <br/> ... aka "Call of the West" - USA <i>(syndication title)</i> <br/> ... aka "The Pioneers" - USA <i>(syndication title)</i> <br/> ... aka "Trails West" - USA <i>(syndication title)</i> <br/> ... aka "Western Star Theater" - USA <i>(syndication title)</i></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0556792/">The Grand Duke</a> (1959) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0720106/">Stafford Repp</a> (as General Philip Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052445/">"Bat Masterson"</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0519333/">One Bullet from Broken Bow</a> (1959) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0561673/">Charles Maxwell</a> (as General Phil Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050066/">"Tales of Wells Fargo"</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0717223/">The General</a> (1957) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0280707/">Paul Fix</a> (as Lt. General Phil Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045458/">"You Are There"</a> - <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0751899/">Grant and Lee at Appomattox (April 9, 1865)</a> (1953) TV episode, Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0652366/">Robert Osterloh</a> (as General Philip Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042895/">Rio Grande</a> (1950) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0619798/">J. Carrol Naish</a> (as Lt. Gen. Philip Sheridan) <br/> ... aka "John Ford and Merian C. Cooper's Rio Grande" - UK <i>(complete title)</i>, USA <i>(complete title)</i></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034277/">They Died with Their Boots On</a> (1941) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0514344/">John Litel</a> (as Gen. Phil Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032080/">Union Pacific</a> (1939) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0010958/">Ernie Adams</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0029047/">In Old Chicago</a> (1937) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0085782/">Sidney Blackmer</a> (as General Phil Sheridan)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020620/">Abraham Lincoln</a> (1930) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0132955/">Frank Campeau</a> (as General Sheridan) <br/> ... aka "D.W. Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln'" - USA <i>(alternative title)</i></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311788/">Sheridan's Pride</a> (1914) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0793189/">Ernest Shields</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061779/">Hondo and the Apaches</a> (1967) (TV) Played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0581282/">Gary Merrill</a> (as General Philip Sheridan)</p>
<p>My personal favorite from the list above is from the John Ford-John Wayne film “Rio Grande” in which Wayne’s character (Colonel Yorke) served under Sheridan in the Shenandoah Valley and found himself destroying the home of his wife, played by Maureen O’Hara. Sheridan issues Colonel Kirby Yorke a verbal order to cross the Rio Grande River and enter Mexico to hunt down and destroy a band of renegade Apache Indians who have used that border repeatedly to escape after raiding settlements on the US side of the river. Rio Grande (1950)</p>
<p><i>Gen. Philip Sheridan: I'm going to issue you an order and give it to you personally. I want you to cross the Rio Grande, hit the Apache and burn him out. I'm tired of hit-and-run. I'm sick of diplomatic hide-and-seek.</i></p>
<p>Sheridan’s reputation as a dogged Indian fighter is reflected in one of the few popular phrases attributed to him and used in the film "Custer of the West" (1967)</p>
<p><i>Gen. Philip Sheridan: If there's any doubt about the policy of my command, I'll give it to you in one sentence: The only good Indian is a dead Indian. Clear enough?</i></p>
<p>A number of sources report that what he actually said was “The only good Indians I ever saw were dead.” Sheridan reportedly met with Comanche Chief Toch-a-Way (Turtle Dove), at Fort Cobb in the Indian Territory in January 1869. The Chief had said, “Me Toch-a-Way, Me good Indian." Sheridan would later deny it though many of those present would confirm that he did in fact say it.</p>
<p>I will confess to my own personal favorite. General Sheridan took some 50,000 Union troops into Texas in 1865 to complete the Confederate surrender and restore federal control of the border with Mexco (where French forces were trying to sustain an Austrian Archduke as Emperor). A year later, in 1866, as he left having completed is duties there, Sheridan reportedly said, 'If I owned Texas and all Hell, I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.'</p>
<p><span class="font-size-1"><em>Top image: Sheridan's Ride by Thure de Thulstrup</em></span></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-2">Related Reading</span></strong></p>
<p><a href="http://thewildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/sheridan-rides-to-lincoln-s-rescue-in-1864-election-part-1-of-2-a?xg_source=activity" target="_self">Sheridan Rides to Lincoln's Rescue in 1864 Election</a></p>
<p><span class="font-size-2"><a href="http://thewildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/scrappy-phil-sheridan-the-u-s-army-s-little-big-man" target="_self">Scrappy Phil Sheridan - The U.S. Army's Little Big Man</a></span></p>Travel and Music Can Broaden the Mindtag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-10-13:6442157:BlogPost:1228172014-10-13T16:30:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708066?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708066?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300"></img></a> I</span> read a nice article</strong> this Sunday in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/travel/won-over-by-the-battlefield.html?ref=travel&_r=0" target="_blank">The New York Times Travel Section</a> about a young man’s growing interest in military history and how it influenced his…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708066?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="300" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708066?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300" class="align-right"/></a>I</span> read a nice article</strong> this Sunday in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/12/travel/won-over-by-the-battlefield.html?ref=travel&_r=0" target="_blank">The New York Times Travel Section</a> about a young man’s growing interest in military history and how it influenced his family’s vacation plans to include visits to a surprising range of battlefields and not just in the United States. Their travels included visits to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Aughrim" target="_blank">Aughrim</a> in Ireland and Culloden in Scotland. Places I’m almost relieved to say I’ve also visited in my many romps around battlefields in my travels. I was pleased to see the interest in military history being carried on by a member of the younger generation, especially since it included both Irish and Scottish (and by extension British) military history.</p>
<p>But one element of the story echoed our recent discussion of Irish music as an introduction to that history. The young man’s mother, the author of the article, long resisted and may even have been a bit dismayed by her son’s seemingly bloodthirsty interest, until she encountered a song during one of the readings she had chosen to escape the vicarious bloodbath. In one of those to me delicious ironies when perhaps the universe chose to speak to her, she was reading James Joyce’s “The Dubliners” while the male members of the family continued their investigations of the battlefield at Aughrim.</p>
<p>In the article she describes how one of Joyce’s characters, Gretta, overhears a young tenor singing on the main floor as she listens at the top of the stairs. Gretta recognizes the song, “The Lass of Aughrim” from a snatch of lyric: “O, the rains fall on my heavy locks, and the dew wets my skin, My babe lies cold….” Our modern mother and reader describes how she realized that this linked her to “that cold, sad battlefield we had just left. The chills crawled up my arms and spine, and from that day on, I never took any of Dean’s history lessons for granted.”</p>
<p>I freely confess that the song did not ring a bell with me and investigation showed that, as is often the case, there are several versions of the lyrics available and it seems the tune and story are interlinked with several Scottish and English songs as well, but I liked this version from <a href="http://www.lyricsmania.com/the_lass_of_aughrim_lyrics_beth_patterson.html" target="_blank">The Lyrics Mania</a> website, credited to Beth Patterson:</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you'll be the lass of Aughrim<br/>As I'll take you to be<br/>Tell me that first token<br/>That passed between you and me</p>
<p>Oh don't you remember<br/>That night on yon lean hill<br/>When we both met together<br/>I am sorry now to tell</p>
<p>Oh the rain falls on my yellow locks<br/>And the dew soaks my skin;<br/>My babe lies cold in my arms;<br/>Lord Gregory, let me in</p>
<p>Oh the rain falls on my heavy locks<br/>And the dew soaks my skin;<br/>My babe lies cold in my arms;<br/>But none will let me in.</p>
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<p><iframe width="750" height="563" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ZKe4ox_VjaI?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe>
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<p>It turns out that The Chieftains also recorded an extended tune called <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm5vcwrzuQI" target="_blank">“The Battle of Aughrim”</a> on their The Chieftains 4 album. </p>
<p></p>Listen to the Musictag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-10-03:6442157:BlogPost:1210902014-10-03T02:00:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708104?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708104?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> M</span>y wife and I are becoming regulars</strong> at our local, <a href="http://www.4psva.com/" target="_blank">The Four Provinces in Falls Church</a>, Virginia, where they host a Monday night session, or seisiún, of Irish traditional music. We love hearing live music of all kinds and have tried…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708104?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84708104?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>M</span>y wife and I are becoming regulars</strong> at our local, <a href="http://www.4psva.com/" target="_blank">The Four Provinces in Falls Church</a>, Virginia, where they host a Monday night session, or seisiún, of Irish traditional music. We love hearing live music of all kinds and have tried a number of the other local venues as well, including <a href="http://www.danieloconnells.com/" target="_blank">Daniel O'Connells in Alexandria,</a> Virginia. However, as is probably true for most folks, we find that we prefer our local (despite the increasing danger of finding myself called upon to contribute my ‘party piece’ to the gathered musicians). My appreciation comes honestly, it turns out, for in addition to family roots in County Tyrone my Mother recently confessed that she’d seen the Clancy Brothers perform live back in their very earliest days at a club in Gaslight Square in St. Louis.</p>
<p>It was actually Irish music that launched my interest in Irish history, society, culture, etc. At the age of 12, I discovered an early album from The <a href="http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/wel.htm" target="_blank">Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem</a> in a sales bin at the local Woolworths. I’m pretty sure it was one of their first albums with <a href="http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/cbtm_d13_spontaneous.htm" target="_blank">Columbia Records</a> and I went on to happily collect almost all of their albums, including my recent find of an album I never knew existed before finding it in a shop - <a href="http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/cbtm_d21_uprising.htm" target="_blank">Uprising</a>. Their songs introduced me to many of the stories of Irish history. Hearing the the songs, I wanted to know more about the real history behind each one and learn about Kevin Barry, the Inniskilling Dragoons, Robert Emmet, the bridge at Toome, Dr. Johnson, etc. I also learned that a lot of what were popularly presented as “Irish” songs were actually the products of Tin Pan Alley – a fact that Mick Moloney recently celebrated in one of his CDs, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Wasnt-Irish-Jews-Mick-Moloney/dp/B002HQWQFC/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1412208120&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=moloney%2C+jewish" target="_blank">"If It Wasn't for the Irish and the Jews".</a></p>
<p>Digging through library and bookstore shelves over the years, I remember seeing the title “Military Music is to Music as Military Justice is to Justice” in which the author was discussing how the military justice system worked and how it differed from the regular legal system. He was referring critically, of course, to the military marching band and its body of music, which I like but the tunes of which have long since been institutionalized. The British army, for example, has long included in its collection the French revolutionary tune “Ca Ira” (played by American Civil War bands as “The Downfall of Paris”). But the songs I really wanted to find were those written or rewritten by the soldiers themselves and sung by them, these were are not usually politically correct. Book by book, I dug into the history behind songs like “<a href="http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/lyrics_d1.htm#ddayd" target="_blank">D-Day Dodger</a>” and older ballads like “Johnny, I hardly Knew Ye”. I just recently read with amusement how the latter was once proposed to become Ireland’s national anthem. It was also reported to be John F. Kennedy’s favorite Irish song.</p>
<p>The release of the film “<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064754/" target="_blank">Oh, What A Lovely War</a>” was another breakthrough. Like the stage review upon which it was based, it was based upon the actual songs and music sung and parodied by the soldiers of the First World War – the Great War. Of course, like “The D-Day Dodgers” as recorded by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, these songs were presented and recorded in the show in cleaned up versions rather than the original unexpurgated versions actually song by the troops. I’ve since tracked down some half dozen modern collections of Trench songs from British, French, Canadian, and U.S. sources.</p>
<p>When I became a reenactor with a recreated unit of The Irish Brigade, I began to focus upon the original actual songs and parodies song by those original soldiers who fought that war. Fortunately, a lot of research has already been published which was very helpful and by now there was there internet. I was not alone in my quest and discovered the recordings released on CD by <a href="http://www.hauntedfieldmusic.com/ias.html" target="_blank">David Kincaid and Haunted Field Music</a>. David recorded himself performing the original songs he had uncovered in something close to their original arrangements. [With one significant exception as he recorded one modern song with a Civil War storyline on the first CD – and it became a personal if inauthentic favorite except when I was in the field wearing my blue uniform.] I worked with two other members of our unit to also identify and gather in a songbook a collection of original Irish ballads and songs from period songbooks. One of the sources we drew upon was “<a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/The_Spirit_of_the_Nation.html?id=ZzADtIb3iAwC" target="_blank">The Spirit of the Nation</a>” which collected and published poetry, verse, and songs of Ireland collected by “The Nation” </p>
<p>Most recently, I’ve been researching songs mentioned in firsthand accounts as being written and or sung by the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army members during the 1916-1923 period. Most of these have not been recorded but I’ve been able to track down the lyrics and other information.</p>
<p>But to get back to live music, over the years I’ve had the opportunity to hear Tommy Makem perform at his place in New York and elsewhere and I would hear Tommy and Liam Clancy perform at different venues in Ireland and in the U.S. I’ve heard the Chieftains (and met many of them) live several times over the year. In Ireland, I had a chance to hear De Danaan with Maura O’Connell at one of the festivals. But some of the best times were hearing local musicians play live for themselves and their friends and neighbors. You should start checking out your neighborhood through the internet, the newspapers, ask around at your local, you may be surprised at what you’ll find out there and the craic is grand, I guarantee it! </p>
<p> </p>A Day at the State Department - September 11, 2001tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-09-12:6442157:BlogPost:1175572014-09-12T01:30:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707550?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707550?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> O</span>n September 11, 2001,</strong> I was at work in my newly remodeled office at the State Department. Following my normal routine, I was at my desk looking at the morning newspaper for any story that might require attention or action on my part for the noon press briefing that day.</p>
<p>Our…</p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707550?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="750" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707550?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" class="align-full"/></a>O</span>n September 11, 2001,</strong> I was at work in my newly remodeled office at the State Department. Following my normal routine, I was at my desk looking at the morning newspaper for any story that might require attention or action on my part for the noon press briefing that day.</p>
<p>Our new office suit included several wall mounted television sets that allowed us to monitor the world news, primarily CNN. As people arrived for work and moved around I caught conversation talking about a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York City. I stepped out of my office and looked at the TV screen which was showing the first tower after the impact, but that clear cloudless blue sky told me all I needed to know. We had been reading about Osama bin Laden’s plans to launch just such an attack for almost a decade. The first question in my mind was, “how many other airliners are involved and where are they?” The question was partially answered as a second airliner now crashed into the second tower as I watched the live picture from New York. It was now clear beyond doubt that we were under attack.</p>
<p>My job, however, was to go back to work until it was determined at some higher level that I was to do something else. But as the morning passed, additional bits of information kept being passed around from news sources, rumors, etc. Shortly after 10 am, I was asked to visit the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Political Military Affair’s office, who was also a longtime friend and colleague. His office was on the other side of the building from mine and his view included the Virginia side of the Potomac River. As I stepped into his office I could see the smoke rising from the Pentagon where it had been struck by another airliner sometime after the twin towers had been struck. We watched the smoke rising for a while and attempted to ascertain what if any damage we could see.</p>
<p>Around 11 am, the directive came down to evacuate the building as they were still aircraft unaccounted for and it was feared that one or more may still be headed to Washington DC aimed at targets there unknown. I called my wife to tell her we were closing the building down and that I would be heading home with no known time of arrival in the face of an overwhelmed transportation system and highways already jammed with traffic. She shared what news she had heard from the media and conversations with friends – including the rumor that a car bomb had detonated at the State Department. I told her that there definitely been no car bomb at the Department and that she should share that information widely – and if anyone disputed her, remind them that I had spent two years in Belfast during The Troubles and had a pretty good idea what a car bomb explosion looked and sounded like.</p>
<p>After that phone call, I walked through the office suite to make sure that everyone was heading out of the building. One of the younger officers asked, “where should we go” to which I responded, “home, go home, so we know where to find you.” As we secured the now empty offices, the Office Director offered to give me a lift home which under the circumstances, I gladly accepted -- even knowing that traffic would be a veritable nightmare but I wouldn’t be trapped waiting for public transportation or actually walking home from central Washington DC. After what seemed like a couple of hours negotiating through a sea of vehicles, I arrived home to join my wife and daughter and wait out whatever was to happen next -- and spending much of that time in front of the television news broadcasts. One thing in particular, was already clear, it was not just the United States that had been attacked but the world -- and the complete list of victims from New York, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania made that clear.</p>From Tile Media, An Exploration of 1916's 'Terrible Beauty: Áille an Uafáis'tag:thewildgeese.irish,2014-09-05:6442157:BlogPost:1162982014-09-05T18:00:00.000ZRobert A Mosherhttps://thewildgeese.irish/profile/RobertAMosher
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707486?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-right" src="http://static.squarespace.com/static/53205676e4b0da7cd7fb767d/53359dcde4b0326626af76a9/53359e07e4b0e88efea8e93d/1408458729933/h_00209762%20(Camera%20Press%20Ireland).jpg?format=1500w&width=450" style="padding: 1px;" width="450"></img></a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">O</span>n September 25, 1916, William Butler Yeats penned</strong> the words <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/guide/247616#poem">“a terrible be</a><a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/guide/247616#poem">auty is born”</a> as he wrote about the Easter Rising. …</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707486?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://static.squarespace.com/static/53205676e4b0da7cd7fb767d/53359dcde4b0326626af76a9/53359e07e4b0e88efea8e93d/1408458729933/h_00209762%20(Camera%20Press%20Ireland).jpg?format=1500w&width=450" class="align-right" style="padding: 1px;" width="450"/></a></p>
<p><strong><span class="font-size-7" style="font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino;">O</span>n September 25, 1916, William Butler Yeats penned</strong> the words <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/guide/247616#poem">“a terrible be</a><a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/learning/guide/247616#poem">auty is born”</a> as he wrote about the Easter Rising. While his poem did not recount the full story, Yeats’ words encapsulated those events and the emotions surrounding them, and, like something from Shakespeare, Yeats’ words forever entered the English language.</p>
<p>Like that poem, Tile Media's docudrama “A Terrible Beauty: <em><b> </b>Áille an Uafáis</em>” is not the whole story of the Easter Rising, it represents just some of the stories that were a part of the events of that week almost 100 years ago, drawn from the multitude of first-person accounts available to us.</p>
<p>This roughly 90-minute film focuses on the experiences of both sides as well as the civilian bystanders in two of the Rising’s bloodiest episodes, the fighting along the Northumberland Road and Mount Street Bridge between the Irish Volunteers and Irish Citizen Army and two regiments of the British Army as well as in the area around North King Street and the Four Courts. The film’s focus does not stray much beyond these two stories. <em>W</em>riter and director Keith Farrell, and Producer David Farrell brought together in this docudrama the efforts of some two dozen actors and several dozen reenactors, supported by historians and storytellers, and original newsreels and still photographs with reconstructed scenes filmed today. </p>
<p>Concentrating on these two 1916 venues enables the film to reflect many of the key decisions and actions that led to the Rising and decided its outcome. An attempt to tell the full story of Easter Week would require a great deal more effort and resources to produce what would be a much longer and more complex and expensive film, in the face of the accountants who now frequently decide about such projects. In reality, no film could succeed in ever fully telling the story, for, as the Duke of Wellington once said, describing battle would be as impossible as describing a ball, for no one individual could possibly see, hear, know, and recall all that happened because he couldn't be everywhere at all times and many details are lost to history in the confusion. </p>
<p>The extensive use of Irish in the dialogue and captioning may not accurately reflect the level of Irish fluency among the officers and men of the Irish Volunteers, the Irish Citizen Army, the Hibernian Rifles, and others but I interpret this as a part of the understandable process of the Irish laying full claim to the story for themselves and their fellow Irish men and women. It does concern me, however, that it might be seen by a larger audience, not fluent in Irish, as a barrier separating them from the story and dividing them from the men and women who lived it. This was a particular problem in connection with the various historians and other speakers in the film who, while identified by name in English in the screen captions, have their titles, positions, roles, etc., given only in Irish, leaving the non-Irish speaker ignorant of their qualifications.</p>
<p>The documentary element of the docudrama format raises the bar for the film’s presentation of the period’s material culture and social context. I have walked the various scenes of fighting in 1916 and worked as a reenactor/living historian portraying individuals of several periods including a 1916 volunteer, so I know from personal experience how challenging it can be to model both the appearance and the behavior of another time and place. This can be especially demanding for military reenactors who have to be expertly trained in order to fully understand and accurately portray a less than fully trained soldier when that is called for as in this film. Properly reflecting the material culture of a time and place is an important element in supporting the verisimilitude of an historical film, play, or novel. “A Terrible Beauty: <em><b> </b>Áille an Uafáis</em>” comes as close as the available resources allow in terms of clothing, uniforms, and artifacts used by the performers and reenactors.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707251?profile=original" target="_self"><img width="500" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707251?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" class="align-left" width="500"/></a></p>
<p>A particular hurdle for filmmakers is that there were only about <a href="http://thewildgeeseblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/getting-guns.html">1,500 single-shot Howth Mausers</a> all told and yet they were one of the most common weapons among the Volunteers. As a result, surviving examples are expensive and mostly in museums, private collections, and a few government arsenals – and in general not available to filmmakers. But it is still a shame, given the significance of the weapon, reflected in the film’s reference to the British soldiers’ complaints about the use of outlawed dum-dum bullets, that there was no apparent way in which the Mausers could have been more evident in the film. </p>
<p>In 1961, the United States commemorated the 100<sup>th</sup> anniversary of its Civil War, between the North and the South. Not long before that, a prominent American historian had declared that “we now know just about everything we are ever likely to know about the American Civil War.” Fortunately, for both historians and everyone else, he was very, very wrong. In the 50 years that have followed that centennial, I believe that we have obtained a more complex, sophisticated, and deeper understanding of our own civil war and its meaning for us today. I see in this experience, a possible example for Ireland today.</p>
<p>With the small production scale and the focus upon only two of the battlefields of Easter Week, this film is an introduction to the events of 1916. It leaves unanswered many questions about the events leading up to the Rising, about what was happening elsewhere in Dublin and the rest of Ireland, what was happening in England and Germany, and most importantly how it all culminated in this short week. It also presents us with a less than fully realized depiction of the important role of women in the Rising. I would encourage everyone who sees this film, whether the story is new to them or as familiar as the tales your mother raised you on, to use it as the starting point of their own pursuit <em>of</em> a deeper and more complex understanding of that terrible beauty that was and is The Easter Rising. <em>“A Terrible Beauty:</em> <i>Áille an Uafáis</i><em>”</em> is a good, fresh starting point for what should become an open and general dialogue about how these events left all Ireland “changed, changed utterly.” <strong>-- </strong><b><a href="http://mailto:militaryhistory@thewildgeese.com" target="_blank">militaryhistory@thewildgeese.com</a></b></p>
<p><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" class="font-size-2"><b>Related Resources:</b></span></p>
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<tbody><tr><td><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" class="font-size-2"><b>TRACING THE '16 RISING: ONE MAN, ONE CAMERA, ON FOOT</b></span><br/><ul>
<li><a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/hitting-the-road-to-trace-the-easter-rising" target="_self">Part 1: Hitting the Road</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thewildgeeseblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/getting-guns.html">Getting the Guns</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thewildgeeseblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/not-eagle-but-phoenix.html" target="new">Easter Monday's Battle Arrays</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thewildgeeseblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/howth-gunrunners-1914-route-no-walk-in.html" target="new">Howth Gunrunners' 1914 Route</a></li>
<li><div><a href="http://thewildgeeseblog.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-monday-gpo-becomes-enduring.html">Easter Monday: GPO Becomes Enduring Symbol of Irish Resistance</a></div>
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<li><a href="http://maps.google.ie/maps/ms?msid=206243784493292998175.0004be386e78ebe1f1ee2&msa=0">Tracing Robert's Howth trek: Google Maps</a></li>
<li><a href="http://thenewwildgeese.com/profiles/blogs/dublin-easter-monday-1916-1-700-take-on-the-british-empire" target="_self">1,700 Take On the British Empire</a></li>
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<p><a target="_self" href="http://thewildgeese.irish/page/focus-remembering-the-easter-rising-of-1916"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/84707430?profile=original" width="750"/></a></p>
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