Na Buachaillí Bána
Na Buachaillí Bána | |
| A Dhonncha Brúin s deas do chraithfinn lámh leat Agus ní le grá duit ach le fonn do ghabháil (góail) Cheanglóinn suas thú le rópa cnáibe Agus chuirfinn mo "Spír" i do bholg mór. Mar is iomaí buachaill maith chuir tú thar sáile Thiocfas anall fís is cúnamh leo Faoi chultaibh dearga agus hataí lása S beidh an droma Francach a seinm leo! |
Richard Jordan of Rooskey, who with Séamas Bán Ó Máille, led the capture of Claremorris, was informed on, but Denis Browne in a letter to Lord Hardwick said "it would be difficult to find an unprejudiced jury to try him." A courtmartial was arranged and Jordan sentenced to death. Browne arranged the execution for Claremorris, where the prisoner "committed the acts of treason of which he was convicted". He then added, in his letter to the Lord Lieutenant:
"I shall not fail to attend there and will further your Excellencys intention of making the example as impressive as possible."
The Secret Service List shows that the informer who betrayed Richard Jordan was paid one hundred guineas.
It was estimated that Denis Browne had 200 men hanged, 200 transported and 100 more pressed into service in the British Army overseas or salt mines on the Continent.
Dúghlas de hÍde collected the song Na Buachaillí Bána in County Mayo in 1903 and published it as a song ascribed to Antaine Ó Reachtabhra. The song had never before been written down because it would have been too dangerous. (There is a record in a manuscript in the British Museum of a man being arrested in Oranmore for drinking the toast, "That the Kings skin may be converted into boats for Bonaparte", which wish was inserted in a song that was sung in ale-houses and whiskey-shops.)
Denis Browne was called "Donnacha an Rópa" by the people of County Mayo and their feelings about him were well expressed in the first stanza of Na Buachaillí Bána, excellently translated by de hÍde, who described it as "giota fíochmhar".