Today's song is The Kerry Recruit, a semi-humorous ballad about a young man who is talked into enlisting to fight in the Crimean War. The song is one of many Irish anti-recruitment songs, a tradition stretching back to around the Napoleonic era. The song is not from the Crimean war itself- it was written by Seamus O'Farrell in 1915, during the First World War. According to Paddy Tunney, the song was considered one of many treasonous songs by the British authorities, carrying a six-month jail sentence for singing it.
The Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava
The Crimean War, fought 1853-56, say Russia (and, to some extent, Austria) lose to an alliance of Britain, France, the Ottoman Empire, and Sardinia. While the immediate cause of the war was the rights of Catholics in the Ottoman-controlled Holy Land, the more underlying cause was the Russian Empire's pressure on the declining Ottoman Empire, and the French and British unwillingness to allow Russia to gain further territory from the Ottomans and thus more power with which to compete with French and British interests. The war resulted in expanded Christian rights in the Holy Land and a two-decade respite from Russian aggression for the Ottomans. The war itself was notable for several developments, enabled by such technologies as the telegraph and the railway. It was one of the first wars to be extensively photographed and reported back to the home countries of those fighting. It was also one of the first wars to employ the sort of trenches and modern tactics that would come to their horrible apex in World War One.
Here is a version by The Dubliners, with Bobby Lynch on vocals. Worth noting is also Luke Kelly's slower a capella version. Also interesting is The Shamrock Rebels' rendition, which the roughly to the tune of Mrs. McGrath.
The lyrics are as follows
About four years ago I was digging the land
With me brogues on me feet and me spade in me hand
Says I to me self, what a pity to see,
Such a fine strapping lad footing turf round Tralee
Wid me too ra na nya with me too ra na nya,
Wid me too ra na noo ra na noo ra na nya
Well I buttered me brogues, an shook hands with me spade,
An the way down the road like a dashing young blade
When up comes a sergeant an he asks me to list,
'Arra, sergeant a gra, stick a bob in me fist'
Wid me too ra na nya with me too ra na nya,
Wid me too ra na noo ra na noo ra na nya
Well here is a shilling as I got no more
When you get to headquarters you'll get half a score
And a quick strucking mean said the sergeant good bye
You'd not wish to be quarted neither would die
Wid me too ra na nya with me too ra na nya,
Wid me too ra na noo ra na noo ra na nya
Now the first thing they gave me it was a red coat,
With a wide strap of leather to tie round me throat
And the next thing they gave me I asked what was that,
And they told me it was a cockade for me hat
Wid me too ra na nya with me too ra na nya,
Wid me too ra na noo ra na noo ra na nya
An' the next thing they gave me they called it a gun
With powder an ball an' a place for me thumb
Well first it fire spat and then she spewed smoke,
An' they gave me out shoulders such a hell of a stroke
Wid me too ra na nya with me too ra na nya,
Wid me too ra na noo ra na noo ra na nya
The British attack on Redan
Well the first place they sent me was down to the sea,
On the board of a warship bound for the Crimea
Three sticks in the middle all rowled round with sheets,
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