Posted by Jim Moran
on 11/2/2009, 11:20 pm, in reply to "Re: Nick's abridged version: Mtns. of Mourne"
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:
: I always read the "around here with the rest of the force" verse as being
: a military reference. My Trio mentor Jim Moran 'splained to me that the reference is
: to a rural Irish lad that had found one of his friends working as a cop in London.
: He's amazed by the fact that his traffic cop friend needs only raise his hand to
: stop the whole street. I suppose that sort of power was unknown at home in Ireland.
: Maybe Jim will give me his take on the other verse.
Right you are, Mike. I posted a Weekend Videos/CompVid 101 on the song long ago, one of the first that I did more than a year ago:
Weekend Vid/Comp Vid On "The Mountains of Mourne"
Pete Overly has a different take, to a degree, feeling that the song is a testament to pure innocence and love. I emphasized the gentle satire in the song about the poor rural boy who believes that there might be gold in the street, who is shocked by Victorian women's low-cut dresses and make-up, and who misses his simple country beloved.
I love Nick's version, but my favorite is Don McClean's with the traffic cop verse but not the love England bit:
When I sing it, I always include that verse.
Here's a group from the early 80's called Wall Street Crash, and they include the verse about Anglo-Irish friendship but not two others:
I know that lyricist Percy French was strongly in favor of Irish independence, but as we've seen recently, there are plenty of people who feel that way who don't favor violence.
The chief issue in French's time was called "Home Rule" - an arrangement like Canada and Australia had until the 1960a whereby the country elects its own government but pledges at least nominal allegiance to the English crown. The Irish leader of that movement, you may recall, was Charles Parnell. French may have been expressing a sentiment in favor of Home Rule.
The verse sticks out as not consistent with the tone of the others, pasted on, it seems. It's not impossible that French is being satirical - "when we've got all we want" may be either Home Rule or full independence. I prefer to think this.
Anyway - here's the abovementioned Pete Overly at FC in 2007 doing a great version of the song with Nick and John:
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