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Talk:Take It Down from the Mast

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"Traditional Lyrics" - or Behan's?

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The first two lines, "You have murdered our brave Liam and Rory/ You have butchered young Richard and Joe", seem to fulfill the description given of Behan's version that "specifically referred to the judicial murder of.. Rory O'Connor.. Liam Mellows.. Richard Barrett and.. Joseph McKelvey." Therefore, perhaps the section title ought to refer to "Behan's Lyrics"? Or is there another explanation? Harfarhs (talk) 17:41, 2 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

There is no hard evidence that it was written in 1923, beyond the allegation in the songbook of 1936. It has the strange logic of an Irish bull; supposing anti-treaty soldiers had captured a flagpole, and taken down an Irish Free State tricolour, they would have to run it up again as it was their flag. James Ryan, the alleged author, was a lot cleverer than that.78.16.109.74 (talk) 14:11, 4 December 2018 (UTC)[reply]
On the contrary, a published work – not an allegation – of 1936 attributes the song to Ryan Billsmith60 (talk) 14:45, 23 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The original lyrics, as printed in the original book, are now in the article Billsmith60 (talk) 21:21, 4 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]