Danny Boy by Malachy McCourt Read Free Book Online Page A

Because of the desecration and destruction of the sacred oak tree, Doire has immeasurable significance for the Irish.
    Derry City has a history as one of the most attacked and besieged cities. Though the area was occupied for several thousands of years, it was not until the summer of 1600 that the foundation stones for the moderncity were laid by a force commanded by Sir Henry Docwra. The following is an excerpt from The History of Ulster by Jonathan Bardon from the Narration of Sir Henry Docwra:
    O N THE 22 ND OF M AY WEE PUT THE A RMY IN ORDER TO MARCHE, & LEAVING C APTAIN L ANCELLOTT A TFORD AT C ULMORE WITH 600 MEN, TO MAKE UP THE WORKES, WEE WENT TO THE D ERRY 4 MYLES OF UPON THE R IVER SIDE, A PLACE IN MAN NER OF AN I LAND C OMPREHENDING WITHIN IT 40 ACRES OF G ROUND, WHEREIN WERE THE R UINES OF AN OLD A BBAY, OF A B ISHOPP’S HOUSES, OF TWO CHURCHES, & AT OF THE ENDS OF IT AN OLD C ASTLE, THE R IVER CALLED LOUGHFOYLE ENCOMPASSING IT ALL ON ONE SIDE, & A BOGG MOST COMMONLIE WETT, & NOT EASILIE PASSABLE EXCEPT IN TWO OR THREE PLACES DIVIDING IT FROM THE MAINE LAND .
    T HIS PEECE OF G ROUND WE POSSEST OUR SELVES OF WITHOUT R ESISTAUNCE, & JUDGING IT A FITT PLACE TO MAKE OUR MAINE PLANTATION IN, BEING SOME WHAT HIE, & THEREFORE DRY, & HELATHIE TO DWELL UPON, ATT THAT END WHERE THE OLD C ASTLESTOOD, BEING CLOSER TO THE WATER SIDE , I PRESENTLIE RESOLVED TO RAISE A FFORTE TO KEEP OUR STOORE OF M UNITION & VICTUELLS IN, & IN THE OTHER A LITTLE ABOVE WHERE THE WALLS OF AN OLD C ATHEDRAL CHURCH WERE YET STANDING TO EVERT ANOTHER FOR OUR FUTURE SAFETIE & RETREATE UNTO UPON ALL OCCASSIONS .
    James II, whose daughter Mary was married to his enemy, William of Orange, ordered the Protestant soldiers out of Derry, replacing them with a Catholic regiment. The town’s leading citizens fervently discussed whether to comply with this edict. A fearful Bishop Hopkins advised that surrender would be the best course, a notion backed by a trembling bunch of city fathers. However, an intrepid lot of apprentice boys, thirteen in all, stole the keys of the gates from the guards and raised the main drawbridge. They locked the gates with yells of no surrender on their lips and commenced a way of life, that in a sense, has lasted to this very day. Every year, on the nearest Saturday to August 12th, thousands of men of all ages, calling themselves Apprentice Boys, commemorate the original thirteen boys with flags flying, drums beating, bellowing “No surrender!” They march in the low-lying vicinity of theCatholic area, and from the walls they throw pennies at the papists, a gesture of supreme contempt aimed at the cowering minority. Then it’s off to the pubs to sing the battle songs and hymns of old and propose mad toasts, the more traditional one:
    Here’s to the glorious immortal and pious memory
    of King William,
    who saved us from knaves and knavery, slaves and slavery,
    rogues and roguery, brass money and wooden shoes!
    If any man will not rise to this toast ,
    may he be slammed, crammed, and jammed
    into the great gun of Athlone
    and may that gun be fired into the pope’s belly
    and may the pope be fired into the devil’s belly
    and the devil fired into the deepest, darkest pits of hell ,
    and may the gates of hell be slammed shut and locked
    and the key be kept for all eternity
    in the pocket of an Orangeman
    and here’s a fart for the Bishop of Cork .
    Although knowing it would be difficult to top a fart for the Bishop of Cork, the Catholics managed a response of their own:
    Do not speak of your
    Protestant minister
    Or your church without morals or faith
    For the foundation stones
    Of your temple
    Are the balls of Henry
    the Eighth
    In the three hundred plus years since the Siege of Derry, emotions blaze up as if it were yesterday.
    The people of Derry suffered dreadful privations. The constant bombardment brought buildings down on top of the women and children sheltering there. Here was the last