Let Erin Remember
(Tune: The Little Red Fox)
| TYPE | 3 - Complex Melody |
| TOPIC | Ireland |
| TUNE STRUCTURE | A8 B8 |
| VERSE STRUCTURE | 2v 8l |
| TIME SIGNATURE | C |
| KEY SIGNATURE | ♭ |
| TONAL CENTRE | F |
| INCIPIT | GGABBC'D'D'C'BC'D' |
| GENRE | Ballad |
| TEXT SOURCE | Thomas Moore, A Selection of Irish Melodies vol. 2 (Dublin: W. Power, c.1808), p.98 |
| TUNE SOURCE | as above pp.99-101 |
| FIRST LINE | Let Erin remember the days of old |
| NOTATED INCIPIT | |
| Only a small number of songs in vols. 1-2 of Moore's Irish Melodies are written with overt reference to Irish history or politics. This politically rousing song is set to the marching air of 'The Red Fox'. Moore learned the tune from Bunting's 1796 edition. He later recalled having played the air for his friend Robert Emmet, who proclaimed 'Oh that I were at the head of 20,000 men marching to that air' (see Moore's 'Preface' to his fourth volume). | |
Let Erin remember the days of oldLet Erin remember the days of old,Ere her faithless sons betrayed her;When Malachi wore the collar of gold,Which he won from her proud invader;When her kings, with standard of green unfurled, Led the Red-Branch Knights to danger;Ere the emerald gem of the western worldWas set in the crown of a stranger. On Lough Neagh’s bank as the fisherman strays,When the clear, cold eve’s declining, He sees the round towers of other days,In the wave beneath him shining!Thus shall memory often, in dreams sublime,Catch a glimpse of the days that are over;Thus, sighing, look through the waves of time For the long-faded glories they cover!