YOUNG NED OF THE HILL

TAB Have you ever walked the lonesome hills And heard the curlews cry Or seen the raven black as night Upon a windswept sky To walk the purple heather And hear the westwind cry To know that's where the rapparee must die Since Cromwell pushed us westward To live our lowly lives There's some of us have deemed to fight From Tipperary mountains high Noble men with wills of iron Who are not afraid to die Who'll fight with gaelic honour held on high A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell You who raped our Motherland I hope you're rotting down in hell For the horrors that you sent To our misfortunate forefathers Whom you robbed of their birthright "To hell or Connaught" may you burn in hell tonight Of one such man I'd like to speak A rapparee by name and deed His family dispossessed and slaughtered They put a price upon his head His name is known in song and story His deeds are legends still And murdered for blood money Was young Ned of the hill A curse upon you Oliver Cromwell You who raped our Motherland I hope you're rotting down in hell For the horrors that you sent To our misfortunate forefathers Whom you robbed of their birthright "To hell or Connaught" may you burn in hell tonight You have robbed our homes and fortunes Even drove us from our land You tried to break our spirit But you'll never understand The love of dear old Ireland That will forge an iron will As long as there are gallant men Like young Ned of the hill

Note: Starting on Dec. 30, 1996, there was some discussion regarding the meaning of the word "rapparee."

Mike Tackett wrote (in rec.music.celtic and alt.music.pogues):

I was wandering through the Pogues 'Peace and Love' album and tried reading the lyrics to 'Young Ned of the Hill', an anti-Cromwell diatribe if ever there was one. What caught my attention, however, was an unfamiliar word "rapparee", used in the following lines:
"To hear the westwind cry
To know that's where the rapparee must die
...
Of one such man I'd like to speak
A rapparee by name and deed...."
Can anyone shed any light on the meaning and origins of this word? Damnable intriguing!

I threw my hat into the discussion by guessing that, from the context of the song, "rapparee" sounded like it probably meant "rebel," or something quite like it. Arne Gustav Carlsten replied:

Pretty much; though "highwayman" might be a good choice as well. Elements of both "professions" are involved...
"Rapparee" is used in a fair number of older traditional songs; it seems to be an Anglicized spelling of "ropaire," which in turn looks to be the Gaelicized version of "robber."

Sean also responded to my guess, writing:

Most decent dictionaries will refer to rapparee as a specifically Irish thing. It most often explained as a rogue, freebooter or mercenary. It's a fairly historically specific term as well, sort of a pre-Fenian Fenian, with less emphasis on the politic and more on the ruckus.
A Jesse James of sorts.

And Greer Gilman responded to the original post with:

The OED [Oxford English Dictionary] defines "rapparee" (from the Irish *rapaire*, a short pike) as:
2. Hist. An Irish pikeman or irregular soldier, of the kind prominent during the war of 1688-92; hence, an Irish bandit, robber, or freebooter.

There's just no end to the education that goes on around here...

Your intrepid maintainer is DzM.