On 29 October 1842, The Nation, an Irish weekly newspaper, published the lyrics of a new version of “Sean Bhean Bhocht,” a folk ballad that had been passed down orally over generations. It was originally a scurrilous love song, about a young man who marries a sean-bhean bhocht—a poor old woman—and submits to her every demand, most of them sexual in nature.
The version published in The Nation, however, recast the previously apolitical ballad to decidedly political ends. It had been composed almost fifty years before, and heralded the success of a French maritime expedition that planned to land nearly fifteen thousand troops at Bantry Bay in 1796 to aid the Society of United Irishmen in their planned rebellion against British colonial rule. Their landing was imminent, the sean-bhean bhocht said, and once they had set up camp on the curragh of Kildare, the Irish yeomanry would join them and throw off the red and blue of British rule for their “own immortal green.” The song went on:
Will Ireland then be free?
Says the sean-bhean bhocht;
Yes! Ireland shall be free,
From the centre to the sea;
Then hurrah! for Liberty!
Says the sean-bhean bhocht.
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