Track Listing

1. Paddy West
2. Heave Away My Johnny
3. Bold Tenant Farmer
4. Fare Thee Well Enniskillen
5. Bold Fenian Men
6. Jennifer Gentle
7. New South Wales
8. Wrap the Green Flag 'Round Me Boys
9. Johnson's Motor Car
10. Valley of Knockanure [#]
11. Nation Once Again
12. Rising of the Moon
13. Leaving of Liverpool
14. Galway Races
15. Johnny I Hardly Knew You
16. Irish Rover

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #780317 in Music
• Released on: 1994-02-22

Customer Reviews

Rousing rebel songs, and a couple of comic and love songs
I have almost every recording the CB and TM ever made, so maybe I'm a little prejudiced . It's hard to resist a CD that has the little heard 1920's IRA comic anthem "Johnson's Motor Car," as well as the stirring "Rising of the Moon," "A Nation Once Again," and the title track. Equally great are the comic and fast-paced "New South Wales" and "Galway Races." One of the things I liked best about this CD, though, were the liner notes, which contained a great deal of biographical information about our boys in knitted wool. If you're already a fan, you'll love this combination of songs, and if you're trying to get someone hooked on the group, this is a great CD to get them wanting to listen to more.

WHEN THE HARP WAS CRUSHED BENEATH THE CROWN
The following review is being used to comment on several of the Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem recordings. The obvious musical skills, talent and commitment to craftsmanship of this group during its history need no comment by me. Nor does their commitment to keeping alive the Irish folk tradition. Thus, the criterion for review is whether the works represents the political traditions associated with the historic struggle for independence from the English.

A word. As I developed a quasi- leftist political consciousness in my youth I also, in an unsystematic and for the most part then unconscious manner, developed an interest in what is today is called roots music. Initially this was reflected in my first love-the Blues. During the early sixties, under the influence of Dave Van Ronk at first, then Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie and the rest I developed an interest in folk music, then at the height of its revival. It is through this process that I came to appreciate the work of the artists under review. This is odd, and I will explain why. I was actually reared on the material presented here by my maternal grandfather, a great supporter of the Irish Republican Army. I gained from him my own romantic attachment to the exploits of the IRA in 1916 and beyond until independence. Although my own political evolution since then has led me away from political support to the IRA I still love the old songs which represent the spirit of Irish national identity and aspirations for national liberation historically suppressed by the bloody English.

A word about the songs presented here. The liner notes included with the CD are helpful here. The songs range in subject from `The Rising of the Moon' at the time of Wolfe Tone and the United Irishman, probably the last time that a united, independent, non-sectarian single Irish state was possible, to `Kevin Barry' and `Sean Treacy' just before the partition in 1921, creating the mess that still confronts us politically today. That said, as these lines are being written we are approaching the 90th Anniversary of the Easter Uprising of 1916. The vision that James Connolly and others of a Social Republic proclaimed at the General Post Office still waits. In short, there is still work to be done, North and South, united or as independent states. Listen to these songs to understand where we have come from and why we still need to fight.

It'll do, but when will Sony release a COMPLETE compilation?
Yet another compilation from this seminal Irish folk band's extensive catalogue of 1950s and '60s recordings (almost none have been released on disc), this touches on some lesser known songs that still stand up with the group's best work. But Wrap The Green Flag does nothing for fans who want the entire catalogue on CD, or at least a two-disc compilation.