View source for Take It Down from the Mast

{{Short description|1923 Irish republican song}}
{{Use Hiberno-English|date=December 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
"'''Take it Down from the Mast'''" is the common name of an [[Irish republican]] song written in 1923 by [[James Ryan (Irish politician)|James Ryan]]. Entitled "Lines Written by a Republican Soldier in 1923", it was first published in 1936 in ''Good-Bye Twilight: Songs of Struggle in Ireland'', a collection of songs by Leslie Daiken.<ref>Leslie H. Daiken, ''Good-bye Twilight: Songs of the Struggle in Ireland'' (Lawrence & Wishart, London, 1936), pp. 90–91</ref>

Its lyrics refer to the [[Irish Civil War]] (1922–23), while the flag in question is the [[Irish tricolour]]. The song tells supporters of the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] and the [[Irish Free State]] to take down and cease using it, as it is also the flag of the [[Irish Republic]], which the "Free Staters" betrayed. At the time, the [[Anti-Treaty IRA]] regarded their Civil War opponents as traitors and therefore unworthy to use the Irish tricolour.

In 1959, a version written by [[Dominic Behan]]<ref>{{cite web |author=Nick Guida |url=http://www.theballadeers.com/db_d01.htm |title=the Dominic Behan discography (1957-1961) at theBalladeers |publisher=Theballadeers.com |accessdate=2014-03-27 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131206194620/http://theballadeers.com/db_d01.htm |archivedate=2013-12-06 }}</ref> was published. It told of the execution of four members of the IRA Executive on 8 December 1922: Dubliner [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory O'Connor]], who was spokesman for the [[Four Courts]] garrison at the outbreak of the Civil War; Galway man [[Liam Mellows]]; Cork volunteer [[Richard Barrett (Irish republican)|Dick Barrett]]; and IRA chief-of-staff [[Joe McKelvey]] from Tyrone. Their shooting in captivity was a reprisal for the IRA's assassination, the previous day, of TD [[Seán Hales]].

Behan's also accused the Free State of abandoning the province of [[Ulster]], much of which became the state of [[Northern Ireland]] after partition in 1921.

==Original lyrics==

"Lines written by a Republican Soldier in 1923" by James Ryan
<poem>
Take it down from the mast, Irish traitors,<br>'Tis the flag we republicans claim.<br>It can never be owned by [[Free Stater (Ireland)|Free Stater]]s<br>Who shed nothing upon it but shame.<br>Then leave it to those who are willing,<br>To uphold it in war or in peace,<br>Those men who intend to do killing<br>Until England's tyranny cease.

Take it down from the mast to remember,<br>Your comrades who fell in the fight,<br>Those brave men who'd never surrender<br>To [[John Bull]], that big tyrant of might.<br>The flag which to those men spelled freedom<br>From a foe that is centuries old;<br>Looking back on the past we can see them<br>Defending the green, white and gold.

I saw it in all the bright glory<br>When first it was flung to the wind,<br>When of freedom they told us the story<br>That no other nation could find,<br>When of martyrs their blood often freed us<br>Till a traitor to England had sold<br>The land that sorely doth need us<br>To fight for the green, white and gold.

Take it down for its cause you have scornèd<br>To make permanent o'er us the Crown<br>You who linked yourselves up with the foemen<br>The tricolor then to pull down.<br>'Tis we and no other can claim it<br>For to-day joined as one we stand, bold,<br>To fight England combined with Free Staters<br>In defence of the green, white and gold.<ref>Daiken, pp. 90‐91</ref></poem>

==Behan version==
<poem>
You have murdered our brave [[Liam Mellows|Liam]] and [[Rory O'Connor (Irish republican)|Rory]]
You have butchered young [[Richard Barrett (Irish republican)|Richard]] and [[Joe McKelvey|Joe]]
And your hands with their blood are still gory
Fulfilling the work of the foe.

''Refrain''
So take it down from the mast, Irish traitors,
It's the flag we Republicans claim.
It can never belong to Free Staters,
For you've brought on it nothing but shame.

Then leave it to those who are willing
To uphold it in war and in peace,
To those men who intend to do killing
Until England's tyranny cease.

''Refrain''

We'll stand by Enright and Larkin
With [[Charlie Daly (Irish republican)|Daly]] and Sullivan the bold
And we'll break down the English connection
And bring back the nation you sold.

''Refrain''

You sold out the [[Northern Ireland|Six Counties]] for [[Irish Free State|your freedom]]
When we have given you [[Henry Joy McCracken|McCracken]] and [[Wolfe Tone]]
And brave Ulstermen have fought for you in Dublin
Now you watch as we fight on alone.

''Refrain''

And up in [[Ulster]] we're fighting on for freedom
For our people they yearn to be free
You executed those men who fought for us
With a hangman from over the sea.

''Refrain''
''Repeat first stanza''
''Refrain''</poem>

==See also==
{{Portal|Ireland}}
* [[Executions during the Irish Civil War]]
* [[List of Irish ballads]]

==References==
{{reflist}}<!--added above External links/Sources by script-assisted edit-->

==External links==
*[https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/easterrising/ram/rs_l09.ram Audio file (ram)]
*{{YouTube|-b2EL8Jytao|Dominic Behan's rendition}}
{{Irish rebel songs}}
{{ATIRA}}

[[Category:1923 songs]]
[[Category:Irish Civil War]]
[[Category:Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)]]
[[Category:Irish songs]]
[[Category:The Dubliners songs]]