Boulavogue: A Song History
The words of "Boulavogue" (also spelled Boolavogue) are by Patrick Joseph McCall (1861–1919), a Dublin publican, city councillor and prolific writer of patriotic ballads.[1] According to a 2024 profile by Eoghan Corry, the song first appeared in print in the Irish Weekly Independent on 18 June 1898.[2]
Cornelius Varley, Irish cars (Study of two carts in a landscape), pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, over graphite, 1800–73. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A rural Irish scene, shown for its setting; it has no connection to the song.
Its hero is Father John Murphy, born at Tincurry near Ferns, Co. Wexford, in 1753, who served as curate of Boolavogue.[3] In the months before the rebellion he urged his people to stay quiet and took a loyalty oath with his congregation, but after yeomanry and militia attacked men who had come to Ferns to give up their weapons on 26 May 1798, he took up arms.[3] He then became a leading figure among the Wexford insurgents, prominent at Oulart Hill and in the capture of Enniscorthy and Wexford town, and he fought in the defeat at Vinegar Hill on 21 June.[3] Separated from his men during a later campaign, he was captured near Tullow, Co. Carlow, and hanged in the town square there on 2 July 1798.[3] The Dictionary of Irish Biography judges the ballad's opening verses broadly true to events, though it notes that rhyme sometimes wins out over accuracy.[3]
Today the song is often sung to the older air "Youghal Harbour."[1] Corry writes that this was not McCall's original melody, crediting the ballad singer Gerald Crofts with the switch around 1909.[2] The song is still regarded as Co. Wexford's anthem.[3] The Traditional Tune Archive lists it as an air or waltz in F major, and De Dannan recorded it on their 1987 album Ballroom.[1]
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