1798 – The First Year Of Liberty is an album of traditional Irish songs relating to the 1798 rebellion by the United Irishmen. All songs are sung by Frank Harte

Frank Harte

Frank Harte was a traditional Irish singer, song collector, architect and lecturer. He was born and raised in Dublin. His father Peter Harte who had moved from a farming background in Sligo owned 'The Tap' pub in Chapelizod...

 and some are accompanied on bouzouki, guitar and occasional bodhrán

Bodhrán

The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...

 by Donal Lunny

Dónal Lunny

Dónal Lunny is an Irish folk musician. Lunny has been at the forefront of the evolution of traditional Irish music for more than thirty-five years and has participated within the renaissance of traditional Irish music in that time period...

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The album was released in 1998 to commemorate the bicentenary of the events and is accompanied by a detailed booklet about the rebellion and each of the songs on the album.

'The booklet, as well as containing a concise account of the rising, has biographies of all the leaders of the 1798 rebellion, and a handsome cover illustration. It has a substantial bibliography for those seeking further enlightenment, and it makes a useful complement to the more orthodox histories thereby listed. In fact, it tells us what orthodox histories do not tell us; what those who suffered made of the events of 1798.'

Track listing

1. Henry Joy
2. General Munro
3. Dunlavin Green
4. By Memory Inspired
5. Shan Van Vocht
6. Father Murphy
   Come All You Warriors
   Come All You Warriors is a ballad concerning the rebellion against British rule that took place largely in Wexford, Ireland in 1798...
   
   
7. Croppies Lie Down
   Croppies Lie Down
   "Croppies Lie Down" is an anonymous Protestant loyalist anti-rebel folksong dating from the 1798 rebellion in Ireland celebrating the defeat and suppression of the rebels....
   
   
8. Croppy Boy
9. Ballyshannon Lane
10. Wind That Shakes the Barley
11. Roddy McCorley
12. Bagnal Harvey's Farewell
13. Bold Belfast Shoemaker
14. Wheels of the World
15. Henry Joy McCracken
16. Bodenstown Churchyard
17. Rights of Man