Frank Emerson: Music

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Explanation of Wild Geese of the Irish Brigade w/m Frank Emerson © 2001 Frank Emerson Music Publishing ASCAP

April of 1779, a regiment of 1400 Irishmen in the French Army, commanded by Colonel Arthur Dillon, under the Comte d’Estaing took the islands of Martinique and Grenada.

They participated in the Battle of Savannah in October 1779. 1/5 of the French (Irish) and American troops were killed, including Count Kasimir Pulaski. This was a defeat for the Rebels.

In May of 1779, 137 men from Walsh’s regiment were inducted into and served as continental Marines aboard the Bonhomme Richard with John Paul Jones.

In 1781, Irish regiments participated in the Battles of Yorktown and Gloucester Point.

The Brigade was disbanded in France in 1792. The future Louis XVIII presented them with a green banner bearing the Harp and Shamrock 1692-1792 and the legend “Semper et Ubique Fidelis (Always and Everywhere Faithful). The motto of the United States Marines is Semper Fidelis.

The English sought out the remnants of the Irish Brigade and transferred them into the British Army as “Le Brigade Catholique Irlandaise”. They were forbidden to serve in either Ireland or England.

This Brigade finally dissolved in 1797-98 with the coming of the ’98 rising in Ireland.

13 May 1994 a joint resolution was passed by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives in light of the contributions made by the Irish Brigade during the Revolution proclaiming that day “Irish Brigade Marine Day”

Wild Geese of the Irish Brigade
©Frank Emerson ASCAP 2001

Am G Am Out of Ireland flying went the wild geese
Am G Am They left behind their loved ones and their homes
C G For freedom’s light they sought
Am F In foreign lands they fought
Am E7 [: Always for a cause but not their own :]

CHORUS
C F G7 C Semper et ubique fidelis
C F G7 C Read the banner of the battered dogs of war
F G7 They sailed across the sea
C Am Beneath the Fleur de Lis
F G7 C C Wild Geese of the Irish Brigade, to the fore
F G7 Am Wild geese of the Irish Brigade

They came here to help to free this nation
From the lion’s paw whose kindness they did know
So under Lafayette
Came Dillon’s Regiment
[: Saying, “Let us be the first to strike a blow!” :]

They drove the Redcoats from the Caribbean
Then to Savannah went without delay
But it was there Pulaski fell
With many Irishmen as well
[: And victory would not be theirs this day:]

Then Walsh took his boys up to Virginia
To fight at Gloucester Point and Yorktown as well
And on Bonhomme Richard’s decks
They fought as Leathernecks
[: And with Jones they sent the Serapis to hell :]