Wild Wales: The People, Language, & SceneryBorrow, George
General
Wild Wales: The People, Language, & Scenery
Borrow, George
Borrow, George, 1803-1881 -- Travel -- Wales; Wales -- Description and travel
other Orange tunes, and would play ‘Croppies Get Up,’ and what not, and
become a Catholic and a repaler, and an emancipator, they would make a
man of me—so as my Orange trade was gone, and I was half-starved, I
consinted, not however till they had introduced me to Daniel O’Connell,
who called me a credit to my country, and the Irish Horpheus, and
promised me a sovereign if I would consint to join the cause, as he
called it. Well, your hanner, I joined with the cause and became a
Papist, I mane a Catholic once more, and went at the head of processions,
covered all over with green ribbons, playing ‘Croppies Get Up,’ ‘Granny
Whale,’ and the like. But, your hanner; though I went the whole hog with
the repalers and emancipators, they did not make their words good by
making a man of me. Scant and sparing were they in the mate and drink,
and yet more sparing in the money, and Daniel O’Connell never gave me the
sovereign which he promised me. No, your hanner, though I played
‘Croppies Get Up,’ till my fingers ached, as I stumped before him and his
mobs and processions, he never gave me the sovereign: unlike your hanner
who gave me the shilling ye promised me for playing ‘Croppies Lie Down,’
Daniel O’Connell never gave me the sovereign he promised me for playing
‘Croppies Get Up.’ Och, your hanner, I often wished the ould Orange days
were back again. However as I could do no better I continued going the
whole hog with the emancipators and repalers and Dan O’Connell; I went
the whole animal with them till they had got emancipation; and I went the
whole animal with them till they nearly got repale—when all of a sudden
they let the whole thing drop—Dan and his party having frighted the
Government out of its seven senses, and gotten all they thought they
could get, in money and places, which was all they wanted, let the whole
hullabaloo drop, and of course myself, who formed part of it. I went to
those who had persuaded me to give up my Orange tunes, and to play Papist
ones, begging them to give me work; but they tould me very civilly that
they had no farther occasion for my services. I went to Daniel O’Connell
reminding him of the sovereign he had promised me, and offering if he
gave it me to play ‘Croppies Get Up’ under the nose of the
lord-lieutenant himself; but he tould me that he had not time to attend
to me, and when I persisted, bade me go to the Divil and shake myself.
Well, your hanner, seeing no prospect for myself in my own country, and
having incurred some little debts, for which I feared to be arrested, I
came over to England and Wales, where with little content and
satisfaction I have passed seven years.”
“Well,” said I, “thank you for your history—farewell.”
“Stap, your hanner; does your hanner think that the Orange will ever be
out of the kennel, and that the Orange boys will ever walk round the
brass man and horse in College Green as they did of ould?”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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