A great sounding treat ! All lyrics and notes on the sleeve
I will also include handwritten lyrics to When I Sleep , with your vinyl order ❤️❤️
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Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Comes in a shrink wrapped gatefold case with an accompanying booklet insert . Includes imaginative and delicate original artwork by Brenda Friel , all lyrics and translations , background on each track and a bibliography.
Includes unlimited streaming of So Ends This Day
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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Purchasable with gift card
€15EURor more
about
I have been fascinated by the story of the Catalpa Rescue since first reading about it many years ago. I had been tasked with helping to restore an old Stars and Stripes flag from the Catalpa itself. It was in the collection of the Kilkenny Archaeological Society at Rothe House , Kilkenny.
On a tour to Australia in 2012, I had visited Mandurah, Bunbury and Fremantle. This part of Western Australia was a regular stopping off point for whaling ships in the mid to late 1800s.
After John Boyle O ‘Reilly’s escape on the whaleship “Gazelle “in 1869, he settled in Boston and became known as an author, a poet and the editor of The Pilot newspaper. He was determined that his comrades who remained in Fremantle’s Prison known as The Establishment would not be forgotten. John Devoy ,who in 1871 was a leader of Clan na Gael in New York ,corresponded with O ‘Reilly and a plan to rescue the six Fenians by means of a whaling ship slowly became reality. Devoy was introduced to Henry Hathaway. Hathaway was a friend of O Reilly’s since he helped him escape aboard the Gazelle and he was at this time a new Bedford Night Police Chief. The three men who are searching for a suitable whaler in the first verse were Captain George Smith Anthony, John T. Richardson, a Quaker whaling agent, and Henry Hathaway.
There is no doubt that the plan to defy the world’s mightiest maritime power, the British Navy, with a single (unarmed) whale ship was risky in the extreme.
Captain George Anthony proved to be more than equal to the task of navigation and whaling, while keeping the truth of the mission even from his First Mate until they reached Australia.
In Fremantle, John Breslin coordinated the highly secretive and dangerous task of getting the prisoners to safety, where personnel and timing were of the utmost importance. Fr Patrick Mc Cabe was instrumental in passing messages in and out of the prison. When the time came, Easter Monday April 1876, many of the prison guards and officials were attending Royal Perth Yacht Club Regatta. The prisoners slipped away from their work details to Rockingham beach. A smaller whaleboat from the Catalpa, under Anthony’s command, then brought them to the ship which was moored some 15 miles offshore in international waters.
This was the really dangerous part of the mission, as by then the alarm had been raised and the British naval ship was in pursuit. It is thrilling to read the logbook of the Catalpa and read the calm account of that day as written by Captain Anthony.
The fact that they were flying the American Flag and were in International waters but mostly the fact that Captain Anthony was resolute in his defiance meant that Catalpa sailed away, back to America. He steered her into New York Harbour four months later.
Liberty Hall in New Bedford was packed on Friday August 26th, for a reception honouring Anthony and his crew as well as Henry Hathaway and John Boyle O Reilly.
lyrics
The Catalpa Rescue, 1876
Words: Eilís Kennedy
Air : Traditional
Three men scoured the moorings in the port of New Bedford
In search of a whaler for a clandestine cause
In far off Australia there six Fenians languished
To grant them their freedom from servitude’s jaws.
A three-masted barque was the whaler “Catalpa”
Her tidy length had crossed oceans vast
The men went on board to test out her mettle
In planking and rigging in bowsprit and mast
No whale would compare to the enemy’s challenge
Her captain and crew would risk scaffold and more
But “Catalpa “was coppered, she was manned and ready
For a mission more daring than ever before
A letter was smuggled from Fremantle Prison
Devoy, in the New World, read its sanguine plea:
“Please do not forsake us, your own Fenian brothers
In this living tomb, we are friendless indeed”
It was late in the Spring that they sighted Australia
The whaling was over, but the danger began
Breslin sent word to the prisoners waiting
“Let no man’s heart fail, this will ne’er come again!”
Each man on the shore played his part with courage
There were two waiting wagons and the plan they knew well
But the British Georgette, she loomed as she lay to
Her twelve-pounder cannon could doom them to hell
The captain and oarsmen were anxious and ready
When the men were delivered in shade of gumtrees
Courage and madness in a race back to safety
While the enemy gunship gathered her speed
“Pull away “called the captain in gathering darkness
As he guided the whaleboat from Rockingham beach
Oh, treacherous waves would not scupper his mission
To deliver six men from tyranny’s reach
“Heave to!” shouted Grady the naval commander
“You shall not board us” Were Anthony’s words
“This is my whaler and the flag of my country
And it’s there we are bound with all free men aboard!”
Harrington, Hasset, Darragh and Hogan
Wilson and Cranston completed the crew
From ten years in chains to the whaler’s safe harbour
And ten thousand miles to their freedom anew.
credits
from So Ends This Day,
released June 18, 2020
Lyrics Eilis Kennedy
Traditional air
Performed by Eilis kennedy
Eamon Mc Elholm : Piano Laura Kerr: Fiddle Éilís Kennedy : Whistle
supported by 21 fans who also own “The Catalpa Rescue, 1876”
Such beautiful singing! And lovely songs. I have a special grá for Tá'n Coileach Ag Fógairt An Lae. And Cad É Sin Don Té Sin. And...
Go raibh maith agat. Padraic Mulholland
supported by 14 fans who also own “The Catalpa Rescue, 1876”
Thanks for the beautiful music Karine and Dave. it's been a while since I've felt so emotional listening to a new album. Every lyric is so beautifully supported by the piano parts. Laura-Beth Salter
Scottish harpist and singer Rachel Newton brings an innovative, intensely emotional touch to traditional music on this dreamy LP. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 17, 2020
supported by 13 fans who also own “The Catalpa Rescue, 1876”
Muireann sings and plays beautifully on this album as she does every time she performs regardless of whether she is in the studio, at a pub or on the concert stage. It's wonderful to listen to. Coyletrane
