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"The Wearing of the Green" is an Irish street ballad lamenting the repression of supporters of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It is to an old Irish air, and many versions of the lyric exist, the best-known being by Dion Boucicault. [1] The song proclaims that "they are hanging men and women for the wearing of the green".
The song traces back from at least 1869, in The Wearing Of The Green Songbook, where it was sung with the melody of the music "The Wearing of the Green", and not with the more melancholic melody we know today. [2] Another early publication of the song was in a 19th-century publication, The Irish Singer's Own Book (Noonan, Boston, 1880). [3]
"The Wearing of the Green" – song about repression after the rebellion [9] "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" – a young man's remorse at leaving his lady love to join the United Irishmen is cut short when she is killed by an English bullet (Roud Index 2994). Written by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1836–1883). [21] [22]
The ballad has taken the tune of another Irish ballad, "The Wearing of the Green", [1] and was first published in John Keegan Casey's 1866 collection of poems and songs, A Wreath of Shamrocks. The lyrics were written by Casey (1846–70), the "Fenian Poet", who based the poem on the failed 1798 uprising in Granard, County Longford. [1]
Along with The Colleen Bawn (1860) and The Shaughraun (1874), it is considered one of the three major Irish plays penned by Boucicault. [1] Set during the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the play popularized the street ballad The Wearing of the Green; a rendition of which was included in the play with lyrics by Boucicault. [2]
The song went on to become a worldwide Saint Patrick's Day anthem [2] and its familiar strains are heard on the occasion around the world annually. The lively upbeat song is a favourite played by military and school marching bands everywhere and is now a standard sound for the "Great Day" as popular as "The Wearing of the Green" and has been firmly embedded in Irish-American culture.
Still, some people outside the dance community aren’t as accepting of the new stars. When Morgan Bullock, a Black Irish dancer from Virginia, went viral on TikTok in 2020 for her dance video ...
"The Orange and the Green" or "The Biggest Mix-Up" is a humorous Irish folk song about a man whose father was a Protestant ("Orange") and whose mother was a Catholic ("Green"). It describes the man's trials as the product of religious intermarriage and how "mixed up" he became as a result of such an upbringing.