01 August 2016

It is time to think again about
the anti-war songs of the 1970s

‘My love across the ocean / Wears a scarlet coat so fair, / With a musket at his shoulder / And roses in his hair (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016)

Patrick Comerford

I am working on a short address for the annual Hiroshima Day commemoration being organised later this week [6 August 2016] by the Irish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (Irish CND).

Watching the rise of Donald Trump, the violence that has spread from the Middle East, and the fearful prospects created by a post-Brexit Britain, it seems the world is descending into chaos with tensions that exceed those at the height of the Cold War. A number of anti-war songs from the 1970s are going through my head at the moment, including Steeleye Span’s The Lowlands of Holland.

Today [1 August] is a bank holiday in the Republic of Ireland. But it is also Minden Day, which is still marked by some regiments in the British Army in commemoration of the Battle of Minden during the Seven Years’ War on 1 August 1759. The day is marked by wearing ‘Minden Roses’ on regimental head dress and decorating regimental colours with garlands of roses. These Minden Roses recall how in the battle soldiers wore wild roses they had plucked from the hedgerows as they advanced because the flowers reminded them of home.

The colours of roses vary, including red, white and yellow. Yorkshire regiments wear white roses and in 1975 this day [1 August] was declared Yorkshire Day, reflecting the presence of large numbers of Yorkshire soldiers at the battle.

Minden Day is recalled in many versions of the English folk song, The Lowlands of Holland. In this song, a young wife tells how her husband has died in the wars in Holland. But like so many English folk songs, there are many variants of this song.

Sometimes, the song describes how the young man is conscripted, or only the wife’s grief at his death and she refuses to adorn herself or marry again. Sometimes it includes a verse where the wife’s mother advises her to find a new partner, a description of Holland, or an account of the man’s ship sinking.

In a version from Suffolk, the singer’s lover who is leaving is a soldier rather than a sailor, and one of the verses refers to his part in the Battle of Minden. Sometimes it includes a verse where the wife’s mother advises her to find a new partner, a description of Holland, or an account of the man’s ship sinking. The Suffolk version also includes the verse:

My love across the ocean
Wears a scarlet coat so fair,
With a musket at his shoulder
And roses in his hair
.

Modern artists and groups who have recorded the song include Paddy Tunney on The Lark in the Morning (1956), Lori Holland on Irish Folk Songs for Women, Volume 2 (1960) and the Dubliners on their album At Home with The Dubliners (1969).

But my first memory of this song is when Gay Woods, who was born in Dublin, sang it with Steeleye Span on their debut album Hark! The Village Wait in 1970. A year later, Sandy Denny sang it live on BBC Radio in 1971. The Chieftains later recorded it with Natalie Merchant for their album Tears of Stone (1999), and it has also been recorded by Sandy Denny, Dolores Keane, Tommy Makem, Martin Carthy, the Celtic Women and many other artists.

Although Hark! The Village Wait was Steeleye Span’s debut album, it was the only album to feature their original line- of. They broke up and reformed with a new membership immediately after its release, without ever performing live. It is also one of only two Steeleye Span studio albums to feature two female vocalists, Maddy Prior and Gay Woods -- the other album is Time (1996).

The album title refers to not the act of waiting, but to a “Wait” – a small body of wind instrumentalists employed by a town at public charge from Tudor times until the early 19th century. The Christmas Waits are referred to in the novels of Thomas Hardy.

The album tracks include the a capella version of A Calling-On Song – the first of many a capella pieces recorded by Steeleye Span, Blackleg Miner, Dark-Eyed Sailor, as well as The Lowlands of Holland.

The album was originally released in Britain by RCA but was not released at the time in the US. Yet The Lowlands of Holland became one of the anti-war folksongs of the 1970s.



Strangely, the Steeleye Span version of The Lowlands of Holland does not include the reference to roses in the lover’s hair:

The love that I have chosen, I’ll therewith be content
And the salt sea shall be frozen before that I repent
Repent it shall I never until the day I dee
But the lowlands of Holland has twined my love and me.

My love lies in the salt sea and I am on the side
It’s enough to break a young thing’s heart that lately was a bride.
But lately was a bonny bride with pleasure in her e’e.
But the lowlands of Holland has twined my love and me.

My love he built a bonny ship and set her on the sea
With seven score good mariners to bear her company.
But there’s three score of them is sunk and three score dead at sea
And the lowlands of Holland has twined my love and me.

My love has built anither ship and set her on the main
And nane but twenty mariners all for to bring her hame.
But the weary wind began to rise, the sea began to rout
And my love then and his bonny ship turned widdershins about.

Then shall neither quiff come on my head nor comb come in my hair
And shall neither coal nor candlelight shine in my bower mair.
And neither will I marry until the day I dee
For I never had a love but one and he’s drowned in the sea.

Oh hold your tongue my daughter dear, be still and be content.
There’s men enough in Galloway, you need not sore lament.
Oh there’s men enough in Galloway, alas there’s none for me,
For I never had a love but one, and he’s drowned in the sea.


The Steeleye Span line-up on this album is: Maddy Prior, vocals, five-string banjo; Tim Hart, vocals, electric guitar, electric dulcimer, five-string banjo, fiddle, harmonium; Gay Woods, vocals, autoharp, concertina, bodhran; Terry Woods, vocals, mandola, mandolin, five-string banjo, guitar, electric guitar, concertina; Ashley Hutchings, bass, electric bass; Gerry Conway, drums (tracks 2-6); Dave Mattacks, drums (tracks 10-12); and Gay and Maddy, step-dancing.

The line-up for the Lowlands of Holland is: Gay Woods, lead vocals; Terry Woods, electric guitar; Tim Hart, fiddle; Maddy Prior, five-string banjo; Ashley Hutchings, electric bass; and Dave Mattacks, drums.

Silver Strand in Co Wicklow was
a surprising new beach to discover

Inside a cave at Silver Strand in Co Wicklow watching the waves on the beach (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016; click on image for full-screen resolution)

Patrick Comerford

I try to go for a walk on a nearby beach at least once in a weekend, if not twice. It’s good for my lungs and good for my feelings about two conditions, Sarcoidosis and a Vitamin B12 deficiency.

Because I live so close to the M50, places like Bray are often no more than 15 minutes’ drive from home, and it is only little further to get to the beaches at Greystones and Kilcoole, further south in Co Wicklow, or beaches to the north at Malahide, the Velvet Strand at Portmarnock, Balcarrick Beach at Donabate, Portrane, Rush, Loughshinney, the two beach at Skerries, and Laytown, Bettystown and Mornington in Co Meath.

They are all within such easy reach, that I really have few excuses for not getting out for a healthy walk on a beach, taking in the fresh sea air and enjoying the sound of the sea and the waves lapping against the sand and the pebbles.

But I was surprised by the list of “50 Great Irish Beaches” in the ‘Weekend’ Review’ in The Irish Times on Saturday [30 July 2016]. I am familiar with only 20 of the 50 beaches listed by Catherine Murphy.

Few of the beaches I have named in north Co Dublin are included on the list, I am familiar with only one of the beaches on Achill Island, and I was surprised that the list did not include beaches such as Dugort on Achill Island, Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow, or more beaches in Co Wexford, and that the list included none of the beaches on the ‘Gold Coast’ of Co Meath.

Please don’t get me wrong, though. I’m not quibbling. I have long been vocal about the pollution on Bettystown Beach and the refusal of Meath County Council to stop its use as a car park, and the erosion of the beach in Courtown is symptomatic of the problems facing many beaches on the Wexford coast.

The list made me realise how limited I have been in my exploration of Irish beaches. So, after I had presided and preached at the Sung Eucharist in Saint John’s Church, Sandymount, this morning [31 July 2016], two of us decided this afternoon to go for a walk on one of the beaches on the list of ’50 Great Irish Beaches’ that I had not visited previously.

Silver Strand beach and caves in Co Wicklow came in at No 14 on the weekend list in ‘The Irish Times’ (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016; click on image for full-screen resolution)

Silver Strand beach and caves in Co Wicklow came in at No 14 on the list in The Irish Times. Catherine Murphy wrote: “Caramel sands, fragrant honeysuckle and intriguing waves await those who walk down the steep steps to the beach.”

The beach lies just 3 km south of Wicklow Town, but it is a private beach, and access is through one of two neighbouring caravan parks perched on the cliffs above Silver Strand, in picturesque rural settings.

Silver Strand Caravan Park is also known as Webster’s Caravan Park or Harry’s Place. The park is a family run business with coastal views and private access to Silver Strand Beach and Caves.

The park has been owned and operated by four generations of the Webster family and has been catering for the needs of mobile home owners for over a century. For over 40 years, the park has been run by Harry Webster with his wife Jean and their children.

The park has also been a location in a number of media productions, including TV series such as Love/Hate, Moonfleet, The Vikings, Camelot, George Gently, Fair City and ITV’s Primeval, and several feature films including Frankie Starlight, The Escapist, Driftwood and The Count of Monte Cristo.

A little further south, Wolohan’s Caravan and Camping Park has been run by the Wolohan family for over 70 years. This is a 22-acre site set in rural farmland and with spectacular coastal views.

During the week, both parks charge an entrance fee of €6 a day for a car. But this is a bank holiday weekend in Ireland and we paid €10 for the car and access to the beach and the facilities at the Silver Strand Caravan Park or Webster’s.

I know Irish people object to charges like this, but when you compare this with parking charges in high rise inner city parking lots in Dublin that offer no facilities, the charge seemed reasonable and goes towards maintaining a beach that truly deserves its place on that list of ‘50 Great Irish Beaches.’

From the top of the steps leading down to the beach, Silver Strand looks like a small bay. But as we made our way down, we were surprised how large the bay is, with plenty of space for families to stake out their own place with a degree of privacy.

Silver Strand is a collection of three small beaches, enclosed by a maze of caves that brought me back in my mind’s eye to a visit to Matala on the south coast of Crete almost two years ago [26 August 2014].

The tide and the waves were gentle, the sand was soft, and it seemed possible to walk out safely into the water for quite a distance. Inside, the caves acted as echo chambers, resounding with the sound of the waves on the beach.

Eventually, we climbed back up the steps, turning back every now and again for wistful glances at the beach below, before heading on to a late Sunday lunch in the Avoca Café at the Mount Usher Gardens, in the part of Co Wicklow that is known as the ‘Garden of Ireland.’

Memories of the caves at Matala in a cave at Silver Strand, Co Wicklow (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2016; click on image for full-screen resolution)