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Kevin Barry /Legend of the Rebel Soldier
Bluegrass Ballad, Lyrics based a poem by Caroline Norton (1847), Tune based on “Rolling Home.” Legend of the Rebel Soldier: New words by Charlie Moore; Melody according to Moore was based on tune fiddle tune, Kevin Barry;
ARTIST: Kevin Barry from Mudcat;
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1963
RECORDING INFO: The Rebel Soldier - Moore, Charlie: Bird, Elmer. Home Sweet Home, Windy Ridge WR-10002, LP (1982), cut#A.03; Country Capers. 38th Annual Galax Old Fiddlers Convention, 1973, Gazette 38, LP (1973), cut# 25 (Legend of the Rebel Soldier); Harrell, Bill; and the Virginians. Ballads and Bluegrass, Webco WLPS 0121, LP (1986), cut# 8; Moore, Charlie. Original Rebel Soldier, Wango 114, LP (1976), cut#A.01;
OTHER NAMES: "Kevin Barry" “Rolling home to Dear Old England/ Ireland/Scotland/St Helena,” “In the Libby Prison Sadly,” "Shall my Soul Pass through Old Ireland," “Bingen on the Rhine,” "Soldier from Missouri,"
SOURCES: Kevin Barry: Roche Collection, 1983, Vol. 3; No. 52, pg. 14; Digital Tradition; Ceolas: A Fiddler’s Companion; American Memory Collection;
NOTES: "The Legend of the Rebel Soldier", was arranged /written in 1963 by the bluegrass singer Charlie Moore, who also recorded it along with other groups, including The Country Gentlemen, for which it became a signature song. According to Charlie Moore, the melody is based on the Irish fiddle tune and ballad "Kevin Barry." Moore’s rewrite closely resembles the US folk song, "Soldier from Missouri," and the Irish, "Shall my Soul Pass through Old Ireland?"
"The Legend of the Rebel Soldier" is a shorter and simpler rewrite of "Bingen on the Rhine," a poem by Caroline Norton (1808-1877) and published circa 1847. "Bingen on the Rhine" was set to music and spawned a number of rewrites including “In the Libby Prison Sadly” by John Ross Dix in 1864 (which was used in the Civil War), the "Soldier from Missouri," and in the 1920’s "Shall my Soul Pass through Old Ireland" as well as "Kevin Barry." With so many rewrites and different versions it’s hard to tell which version Charlie Moore based his rewrite of "The Legend of the Rebel Soldier."
The tune “Rolling Home to Dear Old England” is the melody for the “Kevin Barry” song. John Masefield wrote of 'Rolling Home', which was originally a poem written by Charles Mackay (1814— 89) on May 26, 1858 while homeward bound from America as a passenger on the Europa. Its eight verses were indeed augmented by sailors. Hugill, who calls it 'the most famous homeward-bound song of them all', prints well over twenty, many with variants. The song was also used as a capstan shanty. Roy Palmer (The Oxford Book of Sea Songs, re-issued as Boxing the Compass, 2001) also states that Charles MacKay (1814-1889) wrote his poem Rolling Home "on May 26,1858 while homeward bound from America as a passenger on the Europa. Its verses were indeed augmented by sailors." It is not clear whether Mackay wrote the tune or it was an older British melody. The song "Shall my Soul Pass through Old Ireland," is a shorter and simpler rewrite of "Bingen on the Rhine", a poem by Caroline Norton (1808-1877) and published between (1847-1859). "Shall my Soul Pass” was written closer to the date of publication of Kevin Barry, to commemorate all Irish prisoners in British prisons and the death of Terence McSwiney, who starved himself to death in a British prison, in 1920.
Terence McSwiney (starvation) and Kevin Barry (hanging) died within one week of each other in 1920. So the "Kevin Barry" song is definitely 1920, or later in the same decade. The song "Shall my soul... is said to commemorate Terence McSwiney.
HISTORY OF “KEVIN BARRY,” “SHALL MY SOUL PASS”: After the Easter 1916 Rising, the Volunteers were in disarray, and it seemed as though yet another generation had shot its bolt. Several factors ensured that this would not be so. Firstly, the people were incensed by the shooting of the Easter leaders. Secondly, the internment of the other Easter rebels, along with many political activists and "suspects", provided an unforeseen opportunity for the planning and re-organization of the new Irish Republican Army. The Sinn Féin movement went from strength to strength, aided in no small part by the threat in 1918 of conscription to fight England's bloody war in Flanders. On 21st January, 1919, the first Dáil Eireann, or Irish Assembly, met in the Mansion House in Dublin. It claimed sole authority as the sovereign Irish government, an implicit declaration of war against the British. And war indeed followed.
The Anglo-Irish War, otherwise known as The War of Independence, or the Tan war, can be said to have begun in earnest on January 21st 1919, at Soloheadbeg in Tipperary, when the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the IRA ambushed and killed two RIC men in a raid for explosives.
By now, the British state in Ireland had simply ceased to function over large parts of the country, it's place being taken by the IRA and an associated civilian administration in embryo co-ordinated by Dáil Eireann. The British responded to with martial law and terror. Terence McSwiney, Lord Mayor of Cork, died after seventy-four days on hunger strike. A poem by McSwiney, Teach Us How To Die, sets out explicitly the mentality that led him and others to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Kevin Barry, as the song tells us, was just 18 when he was hung by the British. Kevin was a medical student, in his first year at UCD; and an IRA Volunteer, member of H company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade. On September 20th, 1920, he took part in an ambush of a party of British soldiers in Dublin in which three of the enemy were killed. Afterwards, Barry was captured. Although subjected to torture, Barry refused to betray his comrades, and the British exacted their murderous revenge. Kevin Barry was sentenced to death by hanging, and the sentence was executed in Mountjoy Jail on November 1, 1920. His execution provoked national outrage.
FINAL NOTES: The success of "The Legend of the Rebel Soldier" garnered Charlie Moore The International Bluegrass Music Association song of the year award and other honors. The song was, if fact, a Civil War song from a rewrite of "Bingen on the Rhine." As a comparison, the lyrics to other songs that use the lyrics and/or melody are included.
Here are the lyrics to “Kevin Barry” from Mudcat:
In Mountjoy jail one Monday morning
High upon the gallows tree
Kevin Barry gave his young life
For the cause of liberty
But a lad of eighteen summers
Yet no one can deny
As he walked to death that morning
He proudly held his head on high
Just before he faced the hangman
In his dreary prison cell
British soldiers tortured Barry
Just because he would not tell
The names of his brave companions
And other things they wished to know
"Turn informer or we'll kill you"
Kevin Barry answered, "no"
Calmly standing to attention
While he bade his last farewell
To his broken hearted mother
Whose grief no one can tell
For the cause he proudly cherished
This sad parting had to be
Then to death walked softly smiling
That old Ireland might be free
Another martyr for old Ireland
Another murder for the crown
Whose brutal laws may kill the Irish
But can't keep their spirit down
Lads like Barry are no cowards
From the foe they will not fly
Lads like Barry will free Ireland
For her sake they'll live and die
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