Bold Fenian Men: A Song History

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Two different Irish songs go by the title “The Bold Fenian Men,” and this page covers both.^[1] The Traditional Tune Archive holds that the title properly belongs to an older song by Michael Scanlan, and that Peadar Kearney’s later song is often given that title by mistake.^[1] The Fenians of the title were members of an Irish nationalist secret society, founded in 1858 by James Stephens in Ireland and John O’Mahony in the United States.^[2] The movement took its name from the Fianna, the warrior band of Irish legend.^[2] Britannica records that American Fenians made unsuccessful incursions into Canada in 1866, 1870 and 1871, and that their plans for a rising in Ireland failed.^[2]

Color photograph of a wooded glen with a stream and a path in County Wicklow

The Devil’s Glen, County Wicklow, Ireland, photochrom print, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. An Irish glen shown for the song’s setting; it has no connection to either song.

The older song is credited to Scanlan (1833–1917).^[3] He was born in Castlemahon, County Limerick, emigrated to Chicago at fifteen, and became known as “the Fenian Poet.”^[3] In his text Fenians come together from across Ireland, and the refrain tells everyone to make way for them.^[4]^[5] The Traditional Ballad Index also credits the song to him, under the spelling Scanlon.^[4] Scanlan was one of the editors of the Irish Republic, a paper the Fenian Brotherhood started in Chicago in 1867.^[6] The Ballad Index gives 1864 as the song’s earliest date, citing a scholar’s report that it was first printed in Chicago.^[4] It also lists New York song sheets titled “The Fenian Men,” issued by H. De Marsan and dated to 1864–1878.^[4] Sources differ on authorship, however: the notes to Patrick Galvin’s 1957 LP Irish Rebel Songs, Volume II credit Scanlan with the words and date them to about 1865, but add that it is sometimes attributed to “James Boyle O’Reilly.”^[7]

The second song was written by Peadar Kearney around the time of the 1916 Easter Rising.^[8] In it an old woman remembers the Fenians she saw drilling fifty years earlier.^[8] Kearney also wrote “The Soldier’s Song,” whose music became Ireland’s national anthem; the Irish government dates his words to late 1909 or early 1910.^[8]^[9] Clare County Library describes him as an uncle of Brendan and Dominic Behan, and says he wrote the song to commemorate the Fenians of 1867.^[10] Kearney’s original title was apparently “Down by the Glenside,” but the Ballad Index observes that singers mostly know the song as “The Bold Fenian Men,” and the earliest date it gives is Margaret Barry’s 1955 recording.^[8] Mainly Norfolk lists Barry’s “The Bold Fenian Men,” recorded by Ewan MacColl on 10 March 1955, on the Riverside LP Songs of an Irish Tinker Lady (1956).^[11] The AFI Catalog lists “Down By the Glen Side” among the songs in John Ford’s 1950 film Rio Grande, credited to Kearney and P. J. Ryan.^[12] Clare County Library’s Carroll Mackenzie Collection includes a recording of Nonie Lynch singing it at her home in Mullagh in July 2003.^[10]

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