Singer Mary Courtney appeared at the 2015 Philadelphia Ceili Group Festival. We were fortunate to have the camera running when she sang the brilliant and heartbreaking tune, “The Patriot Game.”
Dominic Behan, younger brother of Brendan Behan, wrote the tune, released in 1958. The melody comes straight from a folk song called “One Morning in May,” but the lyrics could hardly be more different.
“The Patriot Game” relates the story of a young Irish Republican Army volunteer, Fergal O’Hanlon, who died during an assault on a Royal Ulster Constabulary barracks in County Fermanagh in 1957.
The lyrics are bittersweet but unrepentantly militant:
Now I am dying, my body all holes
I think of those traitors who bargained and sold
I’m sorry my rifle has not done the same
For the Quislings who sold out the patriot game
There have been several versions, performed by the likes of The Wolfetones, The Dubliners, and the Clancy Brothers. One of the best renditions we’ve ever heard was that of Mary Courtney, joined by members of the audience, accompanied only by her guitar.
Listen and enjoy.
