CROPPY BOY, THE

Created on 18/04/2005
Latest update on 02/03/2024

Artist: John McCormack
Author: William McBurney
Label: Regal
Year: 1922

Melody based upon 16th century Irish traditional Cailin o cois tSiure me (I Am A Girl From Beside The River Suir) and according to Nicholas Carolan of the Traditional Irish Music Archive in Dublin, the oldest dateable Irish melody, period. In many cases the Croppy Boy is sung to the tune of Lord Franklin (collected in Newfoundland in 1929; Roud #487) and what makes it really embarrasing is two different sets of Croppy Boy lyrics, one anonymous, the other crediting Carroll Malone which is probably an alias.

Covers:

1947:

Nellie Walsh [from Wexford; Library of Congress recording]

1952:

Ewan MacColl [Alan Lomax recording using Lord Franklin's tune]

1953:

Paddy Grant [as McCaffery]

1953:

Jimmy McBeath [as McCafferty; Alan Lomax recording]

1955:

Wade Hemsworth [as Franklin Expedition; dealing with the faithless effort of Sir John Franklin (1847) seeking a northwest passage of the Arctic Ocean with 150 seamen on two ships never to return and his widow's grief, ruining herself to find him; the August 2023 issue of National Geographic retraces that doomed voyage]

1956:

Paul Clayton [as Lady Franklin's Lament]

1956:

Alan Mills [idem]

1956:

Wallace House

1957:

A.L. Lloyd [as Lord Franklin; collected from a blacksmith in Port Stanley on the Falklands; it's a pitty the Lord Franklin branch missed its own entree by using The Croppy Boys melody, which is older]

1958:

Dominic Behan [as McCaffery]

1959:

Willie Brady [see also Boolavogue]

1959:

Clancy Brothers [using Lord Franklin's tune]

1961:

Wallace House [on Folkways album Irish Songs Of Resistance]

1963:

Bob Dylan [melody and words in Bob Dylan's Dream; Dylan learned the tune from Martin Carthy when he was in England in '62 (admits it in the sleevenotes of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan lp); he might have known it (unconsciously?) from the Clancy Brothers; after all, they were invited on his 30th Anniversary Concert]

1966:

Martin Carthy [as Lord Franklin on his second lp four years after he showed this tune to Bob Dylan, hunting songs in England]

1967:

Dubliners

1970:

Pentangle [as Lord Franklin]

1971:

John Renbourn [idem]

1971:

Kevin Burke & Michael O'Domhnaill [idem]

1973:

X Seaman's Institute [as Lady Franklin's Lament; see under Wade Hemsworth's cover]

1993:

Wolfe Tones

1994:

Fred Johnston [as Lord Franklin]

1998:

Liam Clancy & Irish Philharmonic Orch. [on Comoradh '98, the official celebration of the bicentenary of the Irish revolt against the British in 1798]

2002:

Sinéad O'Connor [as Lord Franklin; made to be sung by a woman; see under Wade Hemsworth's cover]

2007:

Carmina [idem]

2010:

Luka Bloom [as Lord Franklin]

The croppy hairstyle favoured by the French revolutionairies (1789) became fashionable amongst the Irish once they fought for Home Rule and revolted against the British in 1798. The enemies of their enemies were their friends. French troops were expected to join Irish revolutionairies in Wexford, Wicklow and Waterford but landed far too much west to be of any help. Pikes are no match against muskets, the Irish were heavily defeated but saw no reason not to commemorate with pride. Croppy Boy, once a term of insult, became a quality label, so did the pike.

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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