John mc evoy you stand alone in your ballads in years to come they will be pleased to hear the way you kept our history alive you kept true best wishes from a dub who lives on ballads which were true of the times you sing about
This is an incredibly lovely song. Thank you for sharing it. Beautifully sung, enchanting guitar accompaniment and a sweet story behind it. My great-grandfathers fought against the Royal Dublin Fusiliers during the Anglo-Boer War, while trying to preserve our independence. It is a pity we had to fight. My great-grandfather said the Irish and the Scots were the most noble among our enemies. He had respect for them.
Great Grandfather was one of those lads, he could still taste the gas years and years after. Family that knew him said you couldn't open a bottle of nail varnish around him, had to take it outside because the smell reminded him of the gas and he would go very strange. He would never speak about what he experienced in France and Dardanelles and Gallipolli, Very rarely. The saddest thing is he could never go back to Ireland after the war because he was considered a traitor. We have not done a good job at remembering what these lads gave, so we could learn a hard lesson. Lets hope we can change our ways because these lads gave far far far too much for so little.
John,You're gonna have to get me over to Ireland...I only dream.lol.....Man you are surely a star writer and songster....Well done my Friend.....Johnny Lane Central NL. Canada.....#1 fan indeed.....
My great uncle Mitchell was destroyed on the first day of the Somme battle, 9th inniskilling fusiliers . He was 24 years old. His body never found. I am named Mitchell and there has been a Mitchell named in our family in his honour since.... we must never forget them.
A fitting song to the memory of brave Irish men who deserve so much more recognition than they have ever received .The 36th Ulster Div have been elevated to such heights by their community, while the brave men are in this song have been ignored on the whole by theirs , that needs to change !
I agree.....it is one of the best songs I have ever heard. They were all great men. Fr Willie Doyle..." None better as a friend"....that is a brilliant line. Thank YOU Johnny.
Johnny great song in a long line of great songs My grand uncle was killed at same engagement half the regiment were wiped out forget the politics they were brave irishmen
@@johnpatrick5307 So they were mugs were they, unless you have served I would suggest you refrain from such flippant remarks. It is statements such as arsehole like you make about their efforts that would put your life in danger should you have the guts to make them to their brave faces. I was privileged to be invited to the Irish Brigades reunion in Liverpool and I have never seen such a proud bunch of old soldiers. For the reason YOU would never understand.
Johnny I first saw you in Ballybunion when I was a lad of 16. My parents god rest them used to come home from America every summer and they were the best years of my life. I have always been a huge fan of yours. I like many other Irishmen keep law and order on the streets of New York. God Bless and what a wonderful song you wrote. I recently found out that Liam Clancy is named after Willie Doyle.
What a great song, and introduction by Johnny McEvoy, of the 200,000 Irish who served, the words of this song could apply to many of them who suffered death, injury, and the horrors of the Great War, so much of our history was lost in the fog of 1916, thousands of John Redmond's Nationalists joined up for the greater cause and the promise of home rule and many fought in the Irish civil war, but all were shamefully shunned by the new founded state.thankfully Ireland has gone through a sea change of attitude in remembering the forgotten irish, it's ignorant and cowardly to poke insults at those who put their lives on the line for the betterment of all. They gave their tomorrow for our today.
well i dont mind honoring those that gave their lives in the 2 soo-called great wars ,which where a neccesary evil ? :( but its the evils that took place after this that i care not 2 remember , the many uneccesery wars ,for oil :( and the evils in the north of ireland by the brit army :( soo if the poppy appeal and rememberance sunday was for the 2 great wars alone , then myb we the irish would support it more :) but i struggle 2 support what they did 2 my people in the whole of ireland :(
The men in this song and those like them are a reminder of Ireland's shame , the shame that Ireland forgot them and tried to airbrush them out of irish history . Only when Ireland truely accepts the price these men paid , can Ireland move on to its' future !
@@johnpatrick5307 Of course we should remember or WW1 dead but the imperfect foundation of the Republic of Ireland was not built on their sacrafice. My grandfather came home from WW1 after serving with the Royal Munster Fusiliers and joined the IRA. He was always critical that thousands of Irish veterans of WW1 did not join the IRA. He was in the Irish Volunteers before WW1. He always argued the point that if Irishmen joined the British Army in WW1 to fight for the freedom of small nations they must have been disappointed to find their country still part of the Empire when they came home despite the success of Sinn Fein in the 1918 General Election. He believed that if Irish veterans of WW1 joined the IRA in greater numbers they could have made the Irish War of Independence a lot more worse for the British.He did'nt believe that the British could be defeated military but the occupation could be made extremely costly for the British.
I think its terrible that these great Irishmen have been ignored and forgotten for so long by the Irish people. My grandfathers were in the Connaught Rangers and the Munster fusileers respectively.
Wit yar RC Cof E Chinese Japanese,maltese,Portugese and some of the camels Core get up ya shower of wasters its the Dublin Fusiliers. Said the aul one to the Kaiser its a ting I can not do
