In Memory Of The Dead Song Lyrics And Chords
Sometimes called ''Who Fears To Speak Of 98'' written by John Kells Ingram, This song uses the same tune as The Third West Cork Brigade, the Youtube video is of Declan Hunt.
THE MEMORY OF THE DEAD (Who Fears to Speak of Ninety-Eight?)
This song may best personify the importance of rebel music in Irish history. John Kells Ingram, later to become a professor of Trinity College and president of the Royal Irish Academy, wrote the ballad when he was but a lad of twenty. First published anonymously in the April 1843 Nation-whose poetry section has been called by John McDonnell a "ballad history of Ireland"-the lay was reprinted two years later in The Spirit of the Nation with the melody to which it was already being sung in the streets and fields.
The ballad unabashedly makes martyrs of the men who fell in 1798. In the true tradition of the rebel song, it does more: it uses the memory of those martyrs to urge the listeners to follow in the footsteps of the men who fell at Vinegar Hill and Ballinahinch. Those who sing the song today also remember the men who fell at the Dublin G.P.O. and Brookeborough Barracks.
This song may best personify the importance of rebel music in Irish history. John Kells Ingram, later to become a professor of Trinity College and president of the Royal Irish Academy, wrote the ballad when he was but a lad of twenty. First published anonymously in the April 1843 Nation-whose poetry section has been called by John McDonnell a "ballad history of Ireland"-the lay was reprinted two years later in The Spirit of the Nation with the melody to which it was already being sung in the streets and fields.
The ballad unabashedly makes martyrs of the men who fell in 1798. In the true tradition of the rebel song, it does more: it uses the memory of those martyrs to urge the listeners to follow in the footsteps of the men who fell at Vinegar Hill and Ballinahinch. Those who sing the song today also remember the men who fell at the Dublin G.P.O. and Brookeborough Barracks.
Who [G] fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?
Who [C] blushes at the [G] name?
When [C] cowards mock the patriot's fate.
Who [D] hangs his head for shame?
He's [G] all a knave or [C] half a slave.
Who slights his country thus
But a [G] true man, like you man,
Will [C] fill your glass with [G] us.
We drink the memory of the brave,
The faithful and the few -
Some lie far off beyond the wave.
Some sleep in Ireland, too;
All, all are gone - but still - lives on
The fame of those who died;
All true men, like you, men.
Remember them with pride.
Some on the shores of distant lands
Their weary hearts have laid,
And by the stranger's heedless hands
Their lonely graves were made.
But, though their clay be far away
Beyond the Atlantic foam,
In true men, like you men,
Their spirits' still at home.
The dust of some is Irish earth
Among their own they rest;
And the same land that gave them birth
Has caught them to her breast;
And we will pray that from their clay
Full many a race may start
Of true men, like you men,
To act as brave a part.
They rose in dark and evil days
To right their native Iand;
They kindled here a living blaze.
That nothing shall withstand.
Alas! that Might can vanquish Right -
They fell and passed away;
But true men, like you men,
Are plenty here today.
Then here's their memory - may it be
For us a guiding light
To cheer our strife for liberty,
And teach us to unite!
Through good and ill be Ireland's still,
Though sad as their's your fate;
And true men, be you, men,
Like those of Ninety-Eight.
Lyrics And Chords K - M
Who [C] blushes at the [G] name?
When [C] cowards mock the patriot's fate.
Who [D] hangs his head for shame?
He's [G] all a knave or [C] half a slave.
Who slights his country thus
But a [G] true man, like you man,
Will [C] fill your glass with [G] us.
We drink the memory of the brave,
The faithful and the few -
Some lie far off beyond the wave.
Some sleep in Ireland, too;
All, all are gone - but still - lives on
The fame of those who died;
All true men, like you, men.
Remember them with pride.
Some on the shores of distant lands
Their weary hearts have laid,
And by the stranger's heedless hands
Their lonely graves were made.
But, though their clay be far away
Beyond the Atlantic foam,
In true men, like you men,
Their spirits' still at home.
The dust of some is Irish earth
Among their own they rest;
And the same land that gave them birth
Has caught them to her breast;
And we will pray that from their clay
Full many a race may start
Of true men, like you men,
To act as brave a part.
They rose in dark and evil days
To right their native Iand;
They kindled here a living blaze.
That nothing shall withstand.
Alas! that Might can vanquish Right -
They fell and passed away;
But true men, like you men,
Are plenty here today.
Then here's their memory - may it be
For us a guiding light
To cheer our strife for liberty,
And teach us to unite!
Through good and ill be Ireland's still,
Though sad as their's your fate;
And true men, be you, men,
Like those of Ninety-Eight.
Lyrics And Chords K - M
Here are the chords in the key of D
Who [D] fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?
Who [G] blushes at the [D] name?
When [G] cowards mock the patriot's fate.
Who [A] hangs his head for shame?
He's [D] all a knave or [G] half a slave.
Who slights his country thus
But a [D] true man, like you man,
Will [G] fill your glass with [D] us.
Who [D] fears to speak of Ninety-Eight?
Who [G] blushes at the [D] name?
When [G] cowards mock the patriot's fate.
Who [A] hangs his head for shame?
He's [D] all a knave or [G] half a slave.
Who slights his country thus
But a [D] true man, like you man,
Will [G] fill your glass with [D] us.
SCOTLAND & IRELAND. The histories of these two Celtic nations, have long been joined at the hip.
The result is a long, fantastic, often heated story. Without any attempt to put everything in chronological order, here are a few highlights that come to mind. It will take you back even before the mythic times of the giant Finn McCool. You will meet the Picts and Gaels and the religious missionaries. The itinerant agricultural labourers and 'navvys'; without whom the "tatties' or the coals would never have been gathered, nor would the hydro-dams and the railways have been built.
Witness land grabs by some Clan chiefs; don't miss the ancient escapades and politics of the Border Reivers and the planned colonisation, mainly of Ulster, by 'the planters' sent by King James VI & I. He hoped to 'quell and civilise the native Irish' - I think I hear 'Aye that'll be right! Then there was the Union of the Crowns. Don't miss the two failed Scottish Jacobite Risings which were sup- ported with hope, by many of the Irish. Who and what were the Gallowglass Highland mercenaries who fought on both sides of the Irish Sea? Read of Robert the Bruce and a spider in the cave on an island off the north Antrim coast, Rathlin. They say it taught him to try, try, try again - and he won.... Take heed of the industrialisation of Glasgow and Belfast; discrimination against the Irish incomers to Scotland. (Sadly, nothing changes). The horror of the Irish potato famine, when half the population either died or were spewed out from Ireland's shores. Many of these 'emigrants" (as if they left by choice) headed for Scotland on their way to an unwelcoming New World, but many went no further than Scotland.
The cross-fertilisation is as strong as ever, at all levels, though perhaps less obvious because we now take it for granted and miss many of the subtleties and differences that remain. And of course the geographical spread has widened as the world becomes "a global village". Robin Morton
The result is a long, fantastic, often heated story. Without any attempt to put everything in chronological order, here are a few highlights that come to mind. It will take you back even before the mythic times of the giant Finn McCool. You will meet the Picts and Gaels and the religious missionaries. The itinerant agricultural labourers and 'navvys'; without whom the "tatties' or the coals would never have been gathered, nor would the hydro-dams and the railways have been built.
Witness land grabs by some Clan chiefs; don't miss the ancient escapades and politics of the Border Reivers and the planned colonisation, mainly of Ulster, by 'the planters' sent by King James VI & I. He hoped to 'quell and civilise the native Irish' - I think I hear 'Aye that'll be right! Then there was the Union of the Crowns. Don't miss the two failed Scottish Jacobite Risings which were sup- ported with hope, by many of the Irish. Who and what were the Gallowglass Highland mercenaries who fought on both sides of the Irish Sea? Read of Robert the Bruce and a spider in the cave on an island off the north Antrim coast, Rathlin. They say it taught him to try, try, try again - and he won.... Take heed of the industrialisation of Glasgow and Belfast; discrimination against the Irish incomers to Scotland. (Sadly, nothing changes). The horror of the Irish potato famine, when half the population either died or were spewed out from Ireland's shores. Many of these 'emigrants" (as if they left by choice) headed for Scotland on their way to an unwelcoming New World, but many went no further than Scotland.
The cross-fertilisation is as strong as ever, at all levels, though perhaps less obvious because we now take it for granted and miss many of the subtleties and differences that remain. And of course the geographical spread has widened as the world becomes "a global village". Robin Morton
