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In the Libby Prison Sadly/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: “In the Libby Prison Sadly” By John Ross Dix. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by CHARLES MAGNUS, publisher.
CATEGORY: Fiddle and Instrumental Tunes; DATE: 1864
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."
"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. According to Norm Cohen, "Lady Caroline Norton's Bingen on the Rhine" was set to music by Judson I. Hutchinson of the Hutchinson Family. It appears that Judson I. Hutchinson of the Hutchinson Family used the melody of “Rolling Home to Dear Old England” to set to the "Bingen on the Rhine," lyrics.
"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.
Civil War song “In The Libby Prison Sadly” from John Dix:
IN THE LIBBY PRISON SADLY" Air: Bingen on the Rhine
In the Libby prison, sadly, a dying Soldier lay;
He had borne himself right bravely through many a bloody fray,
But wasted by oppress on, and cruelty and want,
His frame that was so stalwart, was worn and frail and gaunt!
He call'd his Comrade to him, and whisper'd with a sigh:
'A message I must send to those I love before I die."
'This portrait of my Mary--it has never left my breast;--
When I am in my Coffin on my bosom it must rest;
But cut a lock from off my head, and give it to my wife,
And tell her that I dearly bought my honour with my life!
I thought again to clasp her--but my end is drawing nigh--
And a message I must send to her of love before I die:--
"Here's the Bible, Mother gave me--it has been my shield and stay,--
I have read it as she bade me often since I've been away;
Take it back unto her, Comrade;--with my blood its leaves are stain'd,
But tell her 'twas my comforter so long as life remained!
When she sees this relic of her boy, a tear will dim her eye,--
But a message to my Mother I must send before I die:--
"And tell my children, comrade--though in Libby's cell I sink,
I'd rather be a captive here than from my duty shrink!
Bid them to bless the UNION for which their father fell,
And evermore to guard the FLAG which he has lov'd so well!
Come nearer--nearer Comrade--we'll meet again--good-bye!
But mind and take the messages I send before I die!"
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