Na Píobairí Uilleann

Chairman, NPU

An Píobaire

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7 5 23 20111214 23 their feelings may be on y e . subject! mine are no less so, Heaven knows, my heart, replete with sensibility, bled upon the occasion, while the Duty I owed myself & Country, painfully con- vinced it of y e . impossibility of avoiding it. 13 Newman used term ‘(to dance) Larry Grogan’ of four floggings administered on the march from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, and of one at Fort Washington: Tuesday Aug st . 2 nd . Struck our Tents, & march’d at 4 O Clock A M nothing remarkable occurred on our March to East Kallan [Caln] Township 15 Miles from Whiteland. At this place the Men getting drunk, & becoming refractory, severity again became necessary, & four of the most impudent were very severely flog- g’d by the tune of Laragrogan, notwith- standing which a likely Young Irishman by y e . name of William Carson who had been a spectator of y e . whole, Inlisted on condi- tion of receiv g . his Bounty at Fort Pitt – … Saturday, Aug st . 6 th . The Ser jt s. not return’d & the Men who were lame under Doct rs . Care I determin’d not to March untill Monday . – Inlisted William Miller – Gave the Men the Months pay I rec d . For them in Phil a . – this of Con- sequence introduced rum & Laragrogan once more – ... Wednesday, Aug st . 17 th . … at 7 PM. Serjeant Harmon to whom I had given permission to loiter in y e . rear, came in with part of the Guard, with an acc t . of Ser- jeant Peirce’s being drunk, & having scat- ter’d his Guard in such a Manner as to give John Anderson a fellow who was confin’d for desertion, an opportunity of slipping his Irons & making his escape, a promise of Ten Dollars for apprehension has induced some active Inhabitants to pursue him. Juniata is 19½ miles from Littleton. – The Desertion of y e . above Villain, & some discovery’s I made of the rest of the Prisoners being privy to his escape, & having laid a plan to effect their own, forced me to severity, distressing to my feelings, but which from the nature of the Men I am plagued with y e . command of, ren- der’d absolutely necessary, to convince them, that tho! willing to give every proper indulgence, I could also punish with rigor. Every Prisoner therefore was made to dance Laragrogan, & then their hands chain’d be- hind them, except the one who was link’d to Anderson, & whom I order’d to be chain’d to y e . Waggon. Fryday Aug st . 26th. Sent on the Waggons at 2 A– M– between that hour and marching at 4 AM. Discover’d Patrick Dalton, & Michael Caton had made arrangements to desert, & would undoubtedly have succeeded but for the accidental jump of one of my Sergeants over a Fence, where he perceiv’d Dalton’s Haversack & Musket; Caton had ever been honor’d with Confi- dence, & was at this time forward with the Waggons, but some circumstances having cre- ated suspicion, he was secur’d, and a number of Fowles found in his Haversack, more Car- tridges ab t . him than had been delivered to him, and his Piece charged – Dalton also had 49 rounds and his Musquet Charged with two Balls & his Haversack well stored with Stolen provisions. they both danced Laragrogan, & were put in Irons to take their Trial at Fort Pitt. … Wednesday Sept r . 14 th . Went on Fatigue with 90 Men to haul the Boats up on y e . Bank – had complaints that 25 lbs . Bacon had been stolen altho! a Corporal & 3 men had y e . Care of it. Instantly broke y e . Corp l . and made him & y e . whole Guard dance laragrogan. 14 Newman’s version of the title is obviously cor- rupt. He clearly did not know what the origi- nal form was, and the corruption could be a hint that the metaphorical use was well estab- lished. When writing that four insubordinate soldiers ‘were very severely flogg’d by the tune of Laragrogan,’ he hardly meant that the tune was played while they were being pun- ished. Unlike ‘to dance Jack Lattin’, how it came about that to ‘dance Larry Grogan’ be- came a term that meant a flogging is far from clear. ‘MORE POWER TO YOU, LARRY GROGAN’! Larry Grogan was probably the man of that name invoked in a sectarian controversy of 1850–1. In 1850 Pope Pius IX ordered the Catholic church in England and Wales to or- ganise itself into dioceses, with bishops as- suming territorial titles. This action provoked a backlash against ‘Papal Aggression’, culmi- nating in the Ecclesiastical Titles Act of 1851, which forbade Catholic prelates to assume such titles. (The act was repealed in 1871.) As

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