Janene Millen

Welcome back.

 Your "Time After Time" vid is AMAZING!!!!!

Got it.  I had found the lyrics, but did not have the cords.  This is really great.  I tried the strum a little last Saturday.  Now that I have the cords, I shouldn't have a problem figuring it out.  Thanks for your help. 

Thanks for the quick reply.  I have subscribed to your YouTube channel and am following you on FOTMD, so I should get any new songs you post.  Please do remember me when you create that new YouTube channel.  I would love to see how you create the songs.  I will try to figure out your strumming pattern and tab on One Morning in May from your YouTube post.  It is a little dark though and I can't see your fingers clearly, but I will figure it out.  Thanks again for the quick reply.  I will work on it this weekend.

Great recent videos. your singing and accompaniment are top class. Came across an old Irish book recently it has a piece in it titled A National Flag which is a recruiting speech by Thomas Francis Meagher made at Music Hall, Boston, U.S.A., June 23rd. 1863. The speech is aimed at recruiting the Irish, very rousing indeed. Also got a copy of a recruitment poster to enlist Irishmen into the American Army to fight in WW1. An Irish brigade where they could fight along side each other as they had done during the American Civil. 

Thanks Jan, over 40 years playing and listening and there are thousands I have not heard yet. Maybe over the next 40 I'll get to hear and learn them.

If you have not already come across what I've just mentioned I think you will find it very interesting.

Check out, "In this song I will make mention of the son's of Erin" Researching Irish songs from the American Civil War.

Had a look to see who you were talking about, never heard of her. Definitely not Irish and from what I've heard she is not speaking Gaelic. The few bits I've heard of her would not entice  me to go out and buy her music. Had Kevin Burke and Tim Edey in Town last weekend. Tim is one of the most amazing guitar players on the scene at the moment. At the moment most of my spare time is going on organizing Gigs here in Town, had some incredible music here over the past few months and lots more to come. Little time spent here, tried posting tunes lately but the site tells me they are too large. So have thrown in the towel on that. Hope all is good with you and Ray, plenty of music, history and travelling keeping ye happy. Great programme on TG4 ( Irish language TV channel ) Fág an Bealach. The story of the American Civil War unit The Irish Brigade, tracing the men and women behind the creation of the regiment in Antietam, Maryland. Take care.

I was sure I was already following you, Janene. . . So much for my being sure. ;) 

Ask the owner of the Garyowen if he is a Limerick man.

Was in a band back in the 70's called Woody's Men, will check out those films.

Not sure if Irish Hautboy is much of a tune, if you like the lyrics you could find a tune to suit, a march type tune might suit. In this instance I think Hautboy refers to the Irish pipes (Uilleann). Will forward the variations on the verses later.

You will find two versions of the Boys of Wexford one by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1830-1883) and the second by Patrick Joseph McCall (1861-1919) in your own time check them out and let me know what you think.

Did you get the other verses of the song With the North, or did I mess up and not post properly, If so I will attempt again. The reason I ask is that I tried posting variations I've come across to lines in the verses and thy might even be nicer. Let me know anyway and I'll see what I can do. Boys of Wexford, 1798 Rebellion.

O'Kane. senior moment.

Your Boys of Wexford, reminded me of TV series way back when I was a lad. The series was from the book Profile in Courage written by J. F. K. nearly certain B. of W. was the theme music. His ancestors were Wexford people. You've done a nice job on it, Captain very nice too.

Frank Harte was one of Ireland's leading ballad singers with a vast repertoire of songs, he died a few years back. I was going through some of his CD's last night looking for a particular song. One of his CD's The Hungry Voice has the song By the Hush ( Paddy's Lamentation ). The title of the song is a corruption of a phrase in Irish " B i do thost " which simply means, be silent. Frank says that most of the singers he knew learned the song either directly or indirectly from the singing of O. J. Abbott whose songs were recorded in the Ottawa Valley by Edith Fowke. He can be heard on the Folkways Album, Irish and British Songs from the O. V. The General Meagher referred to in the song was probably the most flamboyant of the Irish leaders in America at that time, known as Meaghger of the Sword. Before ending up in America he was a member of the Young Ireland Movement he advocated the use of the sword rather than the way of peaceful agitation proposed by Daniel O' Connell. In 1848 he was captured by the British tried for high treason and sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered and his remains placed at the disposal of the Queen to be dealt with according to her pleasure. The sentence was commuted to transportation for life to the convict settlement of Van Diemen's land. After four years of penal exile he escaped to America where he rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Union Army. He led with great gallantry the Sixty- Ninth New York Brigade. He later became the acting governor of the Montana territory. and in 1867 when only 44 years old he was drowned in the Missouri River. His body was never found.The "Indian Buck" referred to in the song is the Indian Meal or Yellow meal or as it was known locally," Peel's Brimestone". It was imported from America to feed the starving of Ireland. In the song No Irish Need Apply, Meagher is also mentioned as is Brigadier General Michael Cororan born in Ireland. He was one of the founders of the "The Fighting Sixty Ninth", the 69th New York Volunteers. He commanded the 69th at the First Battle of Bull Run. He endeared himself to the Irish when in 1860 when a parade was arranged to welcome the Prince of Wales to NY. Corcoran refused to assemble and parade the 69th militia regiment to honour a member of the Royal family whose Government had overseen the starvation of so many of his countrymen. "We love the land of Liberty, it's laws we do hold dear," But the devil take nobility " says the Irish Volunteers. Corcoran was court martialled but when the war broke out he was immediately reinstated to his command. He was wounded and taken prisoner but refused parole, because a condition of the parole was to take no further part in the war if set free. More than 200,000 Irishmen fought for the Union, 20,000 fought on the Confederate side. After the battle of Fredericksburg, it is said that in the evening the Irish troops on the Union side were singing the ballad Ireland Boys Hurray only to hear their countrymen on the Confederate side echoing back the chorus of the song.

Andy Irvine sings the Spirit of Mother Jones.

" Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living " The words of Mary Harris born near Shandon, Co. Cork 1837. Survived the famine and in the early 1850's followed her Father to Toronto with her Mother and siblings. She became a teacher moving to Chicago from Michigan and then to Memphis in 1860. There she married George Jones an ironworker. She lived through the Civil War, only to end up burying her husband and four young children when they died from Yellow Fever in 1867. She returned to Chicago and set up a dressmaking business but lost all in the great fire of 1871. Afterwards she immersed herself in the fledging Labour Movement. From here Jan her amazing story begins. She was once labelled the "most dangerous woman in America " Known as Mother Jones she once said " I'm not a humanitarian. I'm a hell raiser. You should have no trouble getting her full story. In 2012 her life was celebrated at a festival in her native Cork. A little something for you to get your teeth into.