Comments on: Let Him Go, Let Him Tarry

By: chris y

chris y — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 22:25:51 +0000

I’m proper frustrated now, because my mother used to sing the chorus to me all the time, but she was 20 in 1945, so she could have picked up either version, and now she’s long dead so I can’t ask her.

She always sounded pretty up beat when she sang it, so I’m going to assume she knew the original.

By: ajay

ajay — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 17:24:43 +0000

There’s quite a tradition of turning reasonably well-meaning folksongs into bitter sectarian songs – I’ve heard Irish versions of “This Land is Your Land” that completely transform the message to republican irredentism, and on the other side there was a version of “I was born under a wandering star” that included the line “Do you know where hell is? / Hell is down the Falls”.

By: Stephen Marks

Stephen Marks — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 11:21:45 +0000

I remember years ago hearing an Irish Republican version satirising Taoiseach Jack Lynch for his inadequate zeal [from an IRA standpoint] at the time of the Battle of the Bogside – a bit unfair as it seems generally conceded that he knew of the gun-running to the Provos by Blaney and Haughey for which he nonetheless sacked them from his cabinet when it became public.

Anyway I have now tracked down the lyrics and here they are;

Jack Lynch came out from Dublin and he had 10,000 men
He marched them to the border and he marched back again
But such an armored column lads the like was never seen
500 mounted bicycles all-wearing of the green

Chorus:
Let him go let him tarry let him sink or let him swim
He doesn’t give a damn for us nor we a damn for him
He sits on his ass in Dublin and hope he does enjoy
Selling out his country for he’s England’s little boy

Well, the Special Branch in Dublin are something for to see
They’ll crawl out of the castle to inform on you and me
But the day is coming soon me boys you’ll hear those rifles bark
The only snakes in Ireland will be in the Phoenix Park
Chorus
Well, Jack where were you last August with all your merry men?
Ah were you on the Falls Road or in the Bogside then?
No you were phoning London and squealing all you knew
On every Irish rebel that would hold a gun it’s true
Chorus
When we finally get our freedom we’ll make them understand
Scrap Fianna Fail Gestapo and all their rotten band
But we want a true Republic with the workers in command
That won’t betray their countrymen or sell them out of hand

By: Chris Brooke

Chris Brooke — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 21:35:29 +0000

Thanks, Phil: I linked to that page for the VE Day memory, but hadn’t absorbed all of it.

By: Phil

Phil — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 20:25:11 +0000

It’s proper old, almost certainly pre-music hall; same goes for “I’ll go with him” (also known as “Do you love an apple?” from the first line of some versions). “Let him go” overlaps with “Farewell he”, which is one of the sources of the more famous “All around my hat” (a song in which Steeleye Span for some reason put together a verse and a chorus with completely different messages – “he can get lost”/”I’ll stay faithful to him”). More on “Let him go” here (see the comment from Malcolm Douglas in particular).