2340. Lillibullero (Traditional Loyalist Irish)

This song was requested by John Best.

"Lillibullero", also spelled "Lillibulero" or "Lilliburlero", probably began as an Irish jig, well before it was first published in 1661 in a collection called "An Antidote Against Melancholy." The best known version is about the Williamite war in Ireland (1689-91), when the Catholic King James II fled England after an invasion by Dutch forces under the Protestant William III. James II tried to reclaim the crown with the help of France and his Catholic supporters in Ireland led by Richard Talbot, 1st Earl of Tyrconnell, but his hopes of using Ireland to reconquer England were thwarted at the Battle of Aughrim in 1691. The song was an extremely successful piece of propaganda, satirising the sentiments of Irish Catholic Jacobites. Swift, in 1712, attributed the song to Whig leader, Thomas Wharton, and quoted him as claiming to have whistled James II out of three kingdoms.

The word "Teague" was a derisive term for the Irish Catholics, derived from the Irish name "Tadhg". The "new deputy" refers to James appointment of Talbot as Lord Deputy of Ireland in 1687. Talbot quickly gave "commissions galore" in the army in Ireland to Catholic officers, awakening fears among Irish Protestants of a massacre like the one in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Apparently the chorus is not mere nonsense words but is based on the Gaelic: "Ba leir e, ba leir e, an Lile ba leir e, An Lile ba leir e bua an la," which can be translated as "It caused it, it caused it, 'twas the Lily that caused it / 'Twas the Lily that caused the victory of the day." The lily was the symbol of the Orange Party.

Another well-known song using this tune is "The Protestant Boys" and there are many others, such as "Nottingham Ale", "Overtures from Richmond," said to have been written by Francis James Child himself, and the Victorian nursery rhyme, "There Was an Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket. The Child ballad "The Farmer's Cursed Wife" (Child #278) is also often sung to this tune.

And of course there are the famous lines from Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy": My uncle Toby would never offer to answer this by any other kind of argument, than that of whistling half a dozen bars of Lillabullero.—–You must know it was the usual channel thro’ which his passions got vent, when anything shocked or surprised him;—-but especially when any thing, which he deem’d very absurd, was offer’d.

Lyrics and chords:
E ........................................ B7
Ho, brother Teague, dost hear the decree?
E ........ A ... B7 ....... E
Lillibullero bullen a la.
............................. B7
We are to have a new deputy.
E ........ A ... B7 ....... E
Lillibullero bullen a la.

................. B7 ..... A
Lero Lero Lillibullero.
........... E .... A ........ B7
Lillibullero bullen a la.
A ...... E .... A .... E
Lero Lero Lero Lero
A ............... B7 ....... E
Lillibullero bullen a la.

Ho, by my soul it is a Talbot
And he will cut every Englishman's throat.

Though, by my soul, the English do prate
The law's on their side and the devil knows what.

But if dispense do come from the Pope
We'll hang Magna Carta and themselves on a rope.

And the good Talbot is now made a Lord
And with his brave lads he's coming aboard.

Who all in France have taken a swear,
That they will have no Protestant heir.

Know that Tyrconnell is come ashore
And we shall have Commissions galore.

And everybody that won't go to Mass
He will be turned out to look like an ass.

Now the heretics all will go down
By Christ and St Patrick's the nation's our own.

There was an old prophecy found in a bog
The country'd be ruled by an ass and a dog.

Now this prophecy is all come to pass
For Talbot's the dog and Tyrconnell's the ass.

You can see a playlist of my Orange songs here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCi_Xcl2_fAUPhCRADtCxuUArRNhAHZIK
Lyrics and chords of many of my songs are no longer available, as my website has expired. I am currently posting lyrics to the information panels on all my videos and those that are too long to post in full will be found on my new website: https://raymondsfolkpage.wordpress.com

Видео 2340. Lillibullero (Traditional Loyalist Irish) канала raymondcrooke