The historical songs of Ireland

1 July 1690 (Old Style; 11 July New Style)

Battle of the Boyne

WELCOME TO IRELAND.

bishops, and accompanied with a numerous train of
friars singing, and others of that clergy. And among
the rest, the titular primate with a triple crown upon
his head, representing the pope, who this unfortunate
and bigotted prince no sooner saw, but he forthwith
went down upon his knees to pray to the image, and
for a blessing from this Irish pope. And from thence
[James was] conducted into the chapel there (made by
Tyrconnel of Henry Cornwell’s riding-house), where
Te Deurn was sung for his happy arrival. Thence he
retired into an apartment prepared in a new house
built before in the castle by Tyrconnel, and there dined
and refreshed himself.”

The following song, which is given from the recita-
tion of an old lady, was probably that sung by the
pretty “ oyster wenches, poultry and herb women in
white,” who strewed flowers beside the king. There is
some slight resemblance between the first verse, and
one of a Jacobite song, called “ King William’s March,”
a satire on William’s departure to join his army in Ire-
land previous to the battle of the Boyne, the burden of
which song is, “ O Willie, Willie wan beard.”

“ Play, piper— play, piper,

UNDAUNTED LONDONDERRY .

University of Oxford ; the king presented him with
£5,000; and, by his majesty’s command, Sir Godfrey
Kneller painted Walker’s picture, which was imme-
diately engraved. In this picture he is represented
“ with a Bible, open at the 20th chapter of Exodus, in
one hand, and a drawn sword in the other. His gar-
ment of a purple colour, and a large old-fashioned
band, form a strong contrast to the military sash ap-
pearing in crimson folds about his waist,” in which a
pistol is lodged.

While in London, Walker published his “ Diary of
the Siege of Londonderry,” which was followed by no
less than nine publications on the same subject. In the
address prefixed to his “ Diary,” he apologizes as a
churchman, for having acted in that service a part which
might, with more propriety, have been done by other
hands. It is impossible that Walker could have been
made Bishop of Derry, as stated by O’Driscol, for that
see was not vacant until the day previous to the Battle
of the Boyne, where Walker was mortally wounded,
and where he was engaged as chaplain to the army.

O’Driscol, whose animated account of the “ Siege of
Derry” has been so largely quoted from, therefore very
unfairly says, “ This man was unnecessarily present at
the Boyne. Walker’s exploits at Derry,” he adds,
“ might have had an excuse in the peculiarity of his
situation ; but neither his exhibitions in London, nor
his presence at the Boyne, can be justified.” Now, the
fact is, Walker was a hero in Derry, the advocate of
his brave fellow-sufferers in London, and, in the course

UNDAUNTED LONDONDERRY.

of his duty as a Protestant clergyman, was slain at the
Boyne.*

* Mr. Bruce, in a note to the Editor, remarks upon this
passage : — “ You are probably aware that there is a letter of
Tillotson’s, in which he says ‘ the king . . . hath made him
[Walker] Bishop of Londonderry.’ You say the see was not
vacant until the day before the Battle of the Boyne : i.e. the
30th June. Now I find in Wood’s 6 Athenae’ (iv. 288), that
Bishop Hopkins died on the 19th June, 1690, and was buried
on the 24th, in St. Mary Aldermanbury. It is possible, if
Wood’s date be right, that Walker may have been appointed,
although Wood himself, in another place (iv. 877), merely
says that he ‘ was designed to succeed’ Bishop Hopkins ;
which is probably all that is true, and that the design may have
existed long before Hopkins’s death. After all, the question
is, not whether he was Bishop of Derry, but whether he was
chaplain to the army. If he were, he was in his place at the
Boyne, whether bishop or not. And upon that point Wood
aids you ; for, immediately after stating that on his way
back into Ireland he had the degree of D.D. conferred upon
him at Oxford, he goes on : ‘ thence he went into Ireland,
where having a command conferred upon him in the army
(iv. 409) he ‘ received his death’s wound,’ and so on in
Wood’s usual ballad style. One can scarcely conceive any
other ‘command’ than a chaplaincy conferred upon a new-
made D.D. It is very strange that Burnet does not mention
even the name of Walker.

“ It seems from an extract from Anchitell Gray’s Debates,
in the ‘ Gentleman’s Magazine’ for 1745, p. 192, that the
House of Commons recommended the king to grant ‘ the
widows and orphans of Londonderry’ ,£10,000, and that they
communicated their determination upon that head to Dr.
Walker at the same time that they returned him thanks for
his defence. Walker was apparently the bearer of the peti-
tion of ‘ the widows and orphans ;’ of itself a sufficient cause
for his coming to London. He returned the house thanks on
their behalf as well as his own.”

THE BOYNE WATER.

THE BOYNE WATER.

The Battle of the Boyne, although in its result
among the most important in English history, was, as a
battle, neither remarkable for the length of time it
occupied, the severity of the conflict, the number of
killed, nor the skill displayed on either side.

A veteran, who was himself engaged in this battle,
has left us the following description of it,* which will
serve to correct the inflated accounts given by various
historians. “ On the 29th of June we advanced to
Atherdee [Ardee], and on the 30th marched up to the
enemy and encamped within cannon-shot of them.
They were drawn up in good order, and to great ad-
vantage, on the other side of the Boyne, and seemed
resolved to dispute the passage of the river with us.
There was a rising ground on our side, which over-
looked their whole situation ; to this place they con-
cluded the King [William] would come to make his
observations. Whereupon they planted four field-