St. Andrew's Legion Pipes and Drums  

"The Bonnie Blue Flag", also known as "We Are a Band of Brothers", is an 1861 marching song associated with the Confederate States of America. The words were written by Ulster-born entertainer Harry McCarthy, with the melody taken from the song " The Irish Jaunting Car". The song's title refers to the unofficial first Flag of the Confederacy, the "Bonnie Blue Flag that bears a single star " of the chorus.

Bonnie Blue Flag
We are a band of brothers,
Native to the soil
Fighting for the property
We gained by honest toil.
And when our rights were threatened,
The cry rose near and far;
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!

Chorus:
Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights, Hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!

As long as the Union
Was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and brethren,
kind were we, and just;
But now, when Northern treachery
Attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue flag
That bears a single star.
Chorus

First gallant South Carolina
Nobly made the stand,
Then came Alabama
And took her by the hand;
Next, quickly, Mississippi,
Georgia, and Florida,
All raised on high the Bonnie Blue flag
That bears a single star.
Chorus

Ye men of valor gather round
The banner of the right,
Texas and fair Louisiana
Join us in the fight;
Davis, our loved President,
And Stephens statesmen are;
Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.
Chorus

And here's to brave Virginia,
The Old Dominion State.
With the young Confederacy
At length has linked her fate.
Impelled by her example,
Now other States prepare
To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue flag
That bears a single star.
Chorus

Then here's to our Confederacy,
Strong we are and brave,
Like patriots of old we'll fight,
Our heritage to save.
And rather than submit to shame,
To die we would prefer
So cheer for the Bonnie Blue flag
That bears a single star.
Chorus

Then cheer, boys, cheer,
Raise a joyous shout
For Arkansas and North Carolina
Now have both gone out;
And let another rousing cheer
For Tennessee be given
The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag
Has grown to be eleven!

John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount of Dundee, led the Jacobites in the Rising of 1689 and was killed at the end of the Battle of Killiecrankie, just as his forces were carrying the day. Immortalized in this song based on a poem by Sir Walter Scott.

To the Lords o' Convention 'twas Claverhouse spoke
E'er the King's crown go down there are crowns to be broke
So each cavalier who loves honour and me
Let him follow the bonnets o' Bonnie Dundee

Chorus
Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can
Come saddle my horses and call out my men
Unhook the West Port and let us gae free
For it's up with the bonnets o' Bonnie Dundee

Dundee he is mounted and rides up the street
The bells they ring backward, the drums they are beat
But the provost douce man says just let it be
For the toon is well rid o' that devil Dundee
Chorus

There are hills beyond Pentland and lands beyond Forth
Be there lords in the south, there are chiefs in the north
There are brave downie wassles three thousand times three
Cry hey for the bonnets o' Bonnie Dundee
Chorus

And awa tae the hills, tae the lee and the rocks
Ere I own a userper I'll couch with the fox
So tremble false whigs in the mid'st o' yer glee
For ye've no seen the last o' my bonnets and me
Chorus

Bonny Portmore is a traditional Celtic folk song, which details the centuries of Ireland's old oak forests, specifically The Great Oak of Portmore, being leveled for military and shipbuilding purposes. Loreena McKennitt performed this song on her 1991 album, The Visit. Amongst popular culture, Loreena McKennitt's version of this song is famous for being the `Scotsman` theme of the Highlander franchise, often played during scenes of nostalgic longing on the part of its tortured Immortal Warriors.

O bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree
For it stood on your shore for many's the long day
Till the long boats from Antrim came to float it away.

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the lords in Old England would not purchase Portmore.

All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep
Saying, "Where shall we shelter, where shall we sleep?"
For the Oak and the Ash, they are all cutten down
And the walls of bonny Portmore are all down to the ground."

O bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more I think long
If I had you now as I had once before
All the Lords of Old England would not purchase Portmore.

According to Wikipedia, Alexander Gordon was known by the nickname "Cock o' the North". Born in 1743, Gordon was a Scottish nobleman, holding numerous titles throughout his life. He held the office of "Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland" for 32 years, succeeded by George William Campbell, the 6th Duke of Argyll in 1827. Gordon also held several peerages, including 4th Duke of Gordon, 1st Earl of Norwich, and 12th Baron Mordaunt. Alexander Gordon is also known as the founder of the Gordon Setter breed of dog, formalizing the breed standard in 1820. Gordon also raised the 92nd Highlanders in 1794 for the American Rebellion and French Revolutionary Wars. For more bawdier versions click here .

Cock of the North
Oh cock of the north with the dream in your hand,
my love has come home to this beautiful land
and he comes through the door with his eyes like the sun
and his kit´s bags are full of the treasures he’s won.

And below the old broom there’s a tall luggin’s tail,
a bat and a crow and the jaws of a whale,
and our kitchen is full with the smell of the sea
and all of the richness my love brings to me.

Come gather your treasures by our gardens and rooms,
and bring them along to the sweet little blooms
with the sun in the morning and blaze on your chest,
oh my love has come home from north by northwest.

And here in these beds we will lay and we’ll sleep,
yes, we’ll lay and we’ll listen to the sounds of the deep,
and as long as the summer, we’ll sleep winter long,
oh my love has come home like King Salomon’s son.

A Hundred Pipers is an old Scottish folk song (to the tune of The Durham Reel) This song is from the 1745 Jacobite Rising, when Scotland's Bonnie Prince Charlie led his army, accompanied by a hundred pipers, into Edinburgh and occupied the Castle. It is the Authorized March of the 49th (Sault-Ste-Marie) Field Artillery.

Chorus:
Wi' a hundred pipers, a' a', an' a',
Wi' a hundred pipers, a' a', an' a',
We'll up an' gie them a blaw, a blaw
Wi' a hundred pipers, a' a', an'a'.

O it’s owre the border awa', awa'
It's owre the border awa', awa',
We'll on an' we'll march to Carlisle ha'
Wi' its yetts, its castle an' a', an a'.
Chorus

Oh! Our sodger lads looked braw, looked braw,
Wi' their tartan kilts an' a', an' a',
Wi' their bonnets an' feathers an' glitt'rin' gear,
An' pibrochs sounding loud and clear.
Chorus

Will they a' return to their ain dear glen?
Will they a' return oor Heilan' men?
Second sichted Sandy looked fu' wae.
An' mithers grat when they march'd away.
Chorus

Oh! Wha' is foremost o' a', o' a',
Oh wha' is foremost o' a', o' a',
Bonnie Charlie the King o' us a', hurrah!
Wi' his hundred pipers an' a', an a'.
Chorus

His bonnet and feathers he's waving high,
His prancing steed maist seems to fly,
The nor' win' plays wi' his curly hair,
While the pipers play wi' an unco flare.
Chorus

The Esk was swollen sae red an' sae deep,
But shouther to shouther the brave lads keep;
Twa thousand swam owre to fell English ground
An' danced themselves dry to the pibroch's sound.
Chorus

Dumfoun'er'd the English saw, they saw,
Dumfoun'er'd they heard the blaw, the blaw,
Dumfoun'er'd they a' ran awa', awa',
Frae the hundred pipers an' a', an ' a'.

Mairi's Wedding (also known as Marie's Wedding, the Lewis Bridal Song, or Mairi Bhan) is a Scottish folk song originally written in Gaelic by Johnny Bannerman for Mary McNiven. Written using a traditional Scots tune, it was first played for McNiven in 1935 at the Old Highlanders Institute in Glasgow's Elmbank Street. Hugh S. Roberton translated the Gaelic version into English in 1936

Mairi's Wedding

ChorusStep we gaily, on we go,
Heel for heel and toe for toe,
Arm and arm and row on row,
All for Mairi's wedding.

Over hillways up and down,
Myrtle green and bracken brown,
Past the sheiling, thro' the town,
All for sake of Mairi.
Chorus

Red her cheeks as rowans are,
Brighter far than any star,
Fairest of them all by far,
Is our darling Mairi.
Chorus

Plenty herring, plenty meal,
Plenty peat to fill her creel,
Plenty bonnie bairns as weel,
That's the toast for Mairi
Chours

"The Minstrel Boy" is a song written by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) who set it to the melody of The Moreen, an old Irish air. It is widely believed that Moore composed the song in remembrance of a number of his friends, whom he met while studying at Trinity College, Dublin and who had participated in (and were killed during) the 1798 rebellion of the United Irishmen. However, the song gained widespread popularity and became a favorite of many Irishmen who fought during the United States Civil War. The song is notably associated with organizations that historically had a heavy representation of Irish-Americans, in particular the police and fire departments of New York, Boston and Chicago and those of various other major US metropolitan areas, even after those organizations have ceased to have a substantial over-representation of personnel of Irish ancestry. Unsurprisingly, given its lyrics, it is also associated with the Irish Army and with traditionally Irish regiments and/or Irish Brigades found in other armies.

MinstrelBoy
The minstrel boy to the war is gone
In the ranks of death you will find him
His father's sword he hath girded on
And his wild harp slung behind him
"Land of Song!" said the warrior bard
" Though all the world betrays thee
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!"

The minstrel fell! But the foeman’s chain
Could not bring that proud soul under
The harp he lov’d ne’er spoke again
For he tore its chords asunder
And said "No chains shall sully thee
Thou soul of love and bravery!
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery!"

O'Donnell Abu is probably the best known and most popular O'Donnell song. The tune was composed in the early part of the 19th centuryby a man from Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary. His name was Joseph Haliday and he was bandmaster of the Cavan Militia. He died in Dublin in 1846, aged 71 years.

Michael McCann, a young Galway man, added words to the music. 'O'Donnell Abu!' is a song about the wars between Protestant Elizabethan troops and Ireland's native and Catholic clans, led by Hugh O'Donnell, in the 1590s. The words were composed by a young Galway man, Michael McGann, in 1843, to an older tune by Joseph Haliday from Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary. 'Jamie Raeburn' is a traditional song about a young Glasgow baker reputedly falsely convicted of theft, and transported.

The composition first appeared in 'The Nation' of January, 1843 and was then called 'The Clan Connell War Song'. McCann, afterwards emigrated to America but later returned to England. At the time of his death in 1883 he was a shopkeeper in London. A celtic cross marks his grave in St. Patrick's Catholic cemetery.

"Red Hugh" O'Donnell's hatred of England was based on a personal experience; as a teenager, the English had gotten him drunk and taken him prisoner. He escaped a few years later (1591), but the unfair imprisonment affected his opinions for the rest of his life. The "O'Neill" of the song is Hugh, third Baron of Dungannon and second Earl of Tyrone, one of the greatest Anglo-Irish barons of the time (1551-1616). He became O' Neill in 1593. He cooperated with the English more than this song might imply, but the threat to his position ( Tudor bureaucracy looked likely to overcome the ancient clan loyalties) eventually pushed him toward rebellion. If the rebellion could be said to have a commander (a debatable point), he was it.

O'Donnell Abu(O’Donnell Forever)
Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding
Loudly the war cries arise on the gale
Fleetly the steed by Lough Swilly is bounding
To join the thick squadrons on Saimer's green vale
On every mountaineer, strangers to flight or fear
Rush to the standard of dauntless Red Hugh
Bonnaught and Gallowglass, throng from each mountain
Pass onward for Erin O'Donnell Abu

Princely O'Neill to our aid is advancing
With many a chieftain and warrior clan
A thousand proud steeds in his vanguard are prancing 'Neath the borderers brave from the Banks of the Bann
Many a heart shall quail under its coat of mail
Deeply the merciless foeman shall rue
When on his ears shall ring bourn on the breeze's wing
Tir Conwell's dread war cry, O'Donnell Abu

Wildly o'er Desmond the war wolf is howling
Fearless the eagle sweeps over the plain
The fox in the streets of the city is prowling
And all who would scare them are banished or slain
On with O'Donnall then, fight the old fight again
Sons of Tir Conwell are valiant and true
Make the proud saxon feel Erin's avenging steel
Strike for your country O'Donnell Abu

Although accepted as an Irish tune (Mallow is a town in County Cork), there have been early versions of this tune with the title The Rigs of Marlowe, leading to speculation that this was an English tune to begin with. Whatever the origin, this tune has long been popular in Scotland, first published there in the 1780s.

A rake was a fashionable youth who led a somewhat dissolute life, so this tune celebrates such young men from the town of Mallow, much as other tunes celebrate The Merry Lads of Ayr, The Lads o' Dunse or The Lasses o' Fochabers. There was also a Scottish song, Sandy He Belangs Tae the Mill which was written to this tune to explain a point of Scottish law.

For those of you who didn't grow up on Regency novels (Georgette Heyer being the best and Barbara Cartland another) a rake (short for rakehell) was an ammoral man who lived a life of debauchery.

Rakes of Mallow
Beauing, belleing, dancing, drinking,
Breaking windows, cursing, sinking
Ever raking, never thinking,
Live the Rakes of Mallow;
Spending faster than it comes,
Beating waiters bailiffs, duns,
Bacchus' true begotten sons,
Live the Rakes of Mallow.

One time naught but claret drinking,
Then like politicians, thinking
To raise the "sinking funds"when sinking.
Live the Rakes of Mallow.
When at home, with da-da dying,
Still for mellow water crying;
But, where there's good claret plying
Live the Rakes of Mallow.

Racking tenants, stewards teasing,
Swiftly spending, slowly raising,
Wishing to spend all their days in
Raking as at Mallow.
Then to end this raking life,
They get sober, take a wife,
Ever after live in
strife,
And wish again for Mallow.

"Scotland the Brave" is, along with "Flower of Scotland" and "Scots Wha Hae", an unofficial national anthem of Scotland. It is used as the Scottish national anthem at the Commonwealth Games. It is also the authorised pipe band march of The British Columbia Dragoons of the Canadian Forces and is played during the Pass in Review at Friday parades at The Citadel. In 2006, it was adopted as the regimental quick march of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The tune seems to have first appeared around the turn of the 20th century. However the lyrics were written comparatively recently by the Scottish journalist Cliff Hanley in or around the 1950s and matched to the tune as proposed by Clan Buchanan

Scotland The Brave
Hark, when the night is falling
Hear, hear the pipes are calling
Loudly and proudly calling
Down through the Glen.
There where the hills are sleeping
Now feel the blood a-leaping
High as the spirits
Of the old highland men.

Chorus
Towering in gallant fame
Scotland my mountain hame
High may your proud standards
Gloriously wave!
Land of my high endeavor
Land of the shining river
Land of my heart forever
Scotland the brave!

High in the misty highlands
Out by the purple islands
Brave are the hearts that beat
Beneath Scottish skies
Wild are the winds to meet you
Staunch are the friends that greet you
Kind as the light that shines
From fair maiden's eyes.
Chorus

Far off in sunlit places
Sad are the Scottish faces
Yearning to feel the kiss
Of sweet Scottish rain.
Where tropic skies are beaming,
Love sets the heart a-dreaming,
Longing and dreaming
for the homeland again.
Chorus

The Skye Boat Song has gained the reputation of a traditional Scottish song recalling the escape of the young pretender Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) after his defeat at Culloden in 1746: he escaped from Uist to the Isle of Skye in a small boat with the aid of Flora MacDonald. He was disguised as a serving maid. The 19th century adherents of Scottish romantic nationalism (which included sentimental Jacobitism) enlarged the anecdote to a legend.

The lyrics were written by Sir Harold Boulton, Bart. (1859 - 1935), to an air collected by Miss Annie MacLeod ( Lady Wilson) in the 1870s. The song was first published in Songs of the North by Boulton and MacLeod, London, 1884, a book that went into at least fourteen editions. In later editions Miss MacLeod's name was dropped and the ascription "Old Highland rowing measure arranged by Malcolm Lawson" was substituted. It was quickly taken up by other compilers, such as Laura Alexandrine Smith's Music of the Waters (published 1888).

According to the collector of folk music lore, Andrew Kuntz, Miss MacLeod was on a trip to the isle of Skye and was being rowed over Loch Coruisk (Coire Uisg, the "Cauldron of Waters") when the rowers broke into a Gaelic rowing song "Cuachag nan Craobh" ("The Cuckoo in the Grove"). Miss MacLeod set down what she remembered of the air, with the intention of using it later in a book she was to co-author with Boulton, who later added the section with the Jacobite associations. " As a piece of modern romantic literature with traditional links it succeeded perhaps too well, for soon people began "remembering" they had learned the song in their childhood, and that the words were 'old Gaelic lines'," Andrew Kuntz has observed.

No Scottish traditional or semi-traditional singer had this sentimental favourite in repertory until very recently, nor is it in any older books of Scottish songs, though it is in most miscellanies like The Fireside Book of Folk Songs. It is often sung as a lullaby, in a slow rocking 6/8 time.

Chorus:
Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing,
Onward, the sailors cry.
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye.

Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air,
Baffled, our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they will not dare.
Chorus

Many's the lad fought on that day,
Well the claymor could wield,
When the night came, silently lay
Dead in Culloden's field.
Chorus

Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep,
Ocean's a royal bed.
Rock'd in the deep Flora will keep
Watch o'er your weary head.
Chorus

Burned are our homes, exile and death,
Scattered the loyal man.
Yet ere the sword cool in the sheath,
Charlie will come again.
< b>Chorus

Star of the County Down is an old Irish ballad which shares its melody with the church hymn "Led By the Spirit" and many other works. The song is notable for its tight rhyme scheme. Each stanza is a double quatrain, and the first and third lines of each quatrain have an internal rhyme on the second and fourth feet: [aa]b[cc]b. The refrain is a single quatrain with the same rhyming pattern.

Star of the County Down
Near Banbridge town, in the County Down
One morning in July
Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen
And she smiled as she passed me by.
She looked so sweet from her two bare feet
To the sheen of her nut-brown hair
Such a coaxing elf, sure I shook myself
To make sure I was really there.

ChorusFrom Bantry Bay up to Derry Quay
And from Galway to Dublin town
No maid I've seen like the sweet colleen That I met in the County Down.

As she onward sped I shook my head
And I gazed with a feeling rare
And I said, says I, to a passerby
"who's the maid with the nut-brown hair?"
He smiled at me, and with pride says he,
"That's the gem of Ireland's crown.
young Rosie McCann
from the banks of the Bann
She's the star of the County Down."

Chorus

I've traveled a bit, but never was hit
Since my roving career began
But fair and square I surrendered there
To the charms of young Rose McCann.
I'd a heart to let and no tenant yet
Did I meet with in shawl or gown
But in she went and I asked no rent
From the star of the County Down.

Chorus

At the harvest fair I'll be surely there
And I'll dress in my Sunday clothes
And I'll try sheep's eyes, and deludering lies
On the heart of the nut-brown rose.
No pipe I'll smoke, no horse I'll yoke
Though with rust my plow turns brown
Till a smiling bride by my own fireside
Sits the star of the County Down.

Chorus