The Glen of Aherlow is a traditional Irish song which originated as a ballad written by Irish republican Charles Joseph Kickham

Charles Kickham

Charles Joseph Kickham was an Irish revolutionary, novelist, poet, journalist and one of the most prominent members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood.-Early life:...

 (1828-1882). It was first printed in The Kilkenny Journal, Kilkenny

Kilkenny

Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...

, on 7 October 1857, the writer using the pseudonym "Darby Ryan, Junior".

The song

After its publication the song was printed on broadsides

Broadside (music)

A broadside is a single sheet of cheap paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations...

, and quickly became popular throughout Ireland. The song has some minor variants on spelling of names and places, depending on where it was sung or collected. It is number J11 in Laws' collection

George Malcolm Laws

George Malcolm Laws Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is a scholar of traditional UK and US folk song.His name is normally rendered as "G Malcolm Laws jnr". He is best known for "American Balladry from British Broadsides", published in 1957 by the American Folklore Society. He graduated from the...

 and #983 in the Roud Folk Song Index

Roud Folk Song Index

The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...

. One version of the lyrics is:

My name is Patrick Sheehan, and my years are thirty-four;

Tipperary is my native place, not far from Galtymore;

I came of honest parents, but now they're lying low;

Though' many's the pleasant days we spent in the Glen of Aherlow.



My father died; I closed his eyes, outside the cabin door;

For the landlord and the sheriff too, were there the day before,

And then my lovin' mother, and my sisters three, also,

Were forced to go with broken hearts, from the Glen of Aherlow



For three long months, in search of work, I wandered far and near;

I then went to the poorhouse to see my mother dear;

The news I heard near broke my heart, but still in all my woe,

I blessed the friends who made their graves in the Glen of Aherlow.



Bereft of home and kith and kin, with plenty all around,

I starved within my cabin, and slept upon the ground;

But cruel as my lot was, I never did hardship know,

Till I joined the English army, far away from Aherlow.



Rouse up there," cried the corporal, "Ya lazy Irish hound!

Why don't you hear the bugle, its call to arms to sound?"

I found I had been dreaming of the days long, long ago,

And I woke upon Sebastopol, and not in Aherlow



I tried to find my musket, how dark I thought the night!

O blessed God! It wasn't dark, it was the broad daylight!

And when I found that I was blind, my tears began to flow,

And I longed for even a pauper's grave in the Glen of Aherlow.



A poor neglected mendicant, I wander Dublin's streets

My nine months' pension it being out, I beg from all I meet;

As I joined my country's tyrants, my face I can never show,

Amongst my dear old neighbors in the Glen of Aherlow.



So Irish youths, dear countrymen, take heed in what I say;

For if you join the English ranks, you'll surely rue the day

And whenever you're tempted, a-soldiering to go.

Remember poor blind Sheehan from the Glen of Aherlow

Historical background

The song is based on the true story of a young ex-soldier from the Glen of Aherlow

Glen of Aherlow

The Glen of Aherlow is a picturesque valley nestling between Slievenamuck and the Galtee Mountains in the western part of South Tipperary in Ireland. The principal village is Lisvarrinane or more commonly spelt Lisvernane with a hamlet at Rossadrehid where Aherlow creamery was located before its...

 named Patrick Sheehan who was blinded at the Siege of Sevastopol. Sheehan was later jailed in 1857 for begging in Grafton Street, Dublin, his British army pension having expired after six months.

Due to the publicity arising from this case, the British government was shamed into inquiring about Sheehan, to whom a life pension of a shilling

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

 a day was granted.

Recordings

A partial discography:

• Joe Heaney 1964, re-issued on The Road from Connemara, Topic TSCD518D/Cló Iar-Chonnachta CICD 143 (October 2000)
• Vincie Boyle on Around the Hills of Clare Musical Traditions MTCD331-2/Góilín 005-6
• Andy M. Stewart
  Andy M. Stewart
  Andy M. Stewart is a Scottish singer and songwriter, formerly the frontman for Silly Wizard.Stewart toured with Silly Wizard until the band broke up in 1988. Since then, he has recorded four solo albums, as well as three with Manus Lunny...