« Important Bulletin | Main | Fingers! »
April 22, 2008
Learn Something New Every Few Weeks or So
From my brother:
Wondering what the origin of the phrase "The wind that shakes the barley" was, as it's in a Shane McGowan song and the title of a Ken Loach movie, I googled it and on wikipedia found this crazy detail which is so evocative:
The Wind That Shakes the Barley is an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1836-1883), a Limerick-born poet and professor of English literature. Its title was borrowed for the Ken Loach film which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.
The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to sacrifice his relationship with his loved one and plunge into the cauldron of violence associated with the 1798 rebellion in Ireland. The references to barley in the song derive from the fact that the rebels often carried barley oats in their pockets as provisions for when on the march. This gave rise to the post-rebellion phenomenon of barley growing and marking the "croppy-holes", mass unmarked graves which slain rebels were thrown into, symbolising the regenerative nature of Irish resistance to British rule.
If I had less tact, this post would've tutully been entitled "Mob Barley." Awww...it's good craic like y'know?
Posted by Bree at April 22, 2008 12:44 PM