Strong Women Rule Us All With Their Tears
(Brian McNeill)
There's a moment of your story
That has always haunted me
When you set out in yon open boat
To help the poor man flee
Was Charlie Stuart's future
Already plain to see
Did you know he'd be a waster on his days
If you did, I'd give the world to find
A single tear you cried
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas
You showed us one and all
The courage you could call
From the tears that would not fall
From your eyes
And after thirty years
After all that you'd been through
us been marriede haven' been a
Just a memory to rue
As you watched your husband putting on
His coat of scarlet hue
To go and fight for German Geordie's crown
But you never tried to hide behind
The dreams of days gone by
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas
You showed us one and all
The courage you could call
From the tears that would not fall
From your eyes
And there's times I think I see you
When I find that kind of face
When a woman's independance
Has kept a woman's grace
Where confidence and pride
Refuse to know their place
Or hide behind the easy tricks of beauty
For to me your lights are like the chimes
Across the stormy skies
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas
You showed us one and all
The courage you could call
From the tears that would not fall
From your eyes
From the Cuillins tae the Carolinas
Strong women rule us all
With the courage that they call
When the tears refuse to fall
From their eyes
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recorded by Brian McNeill & Kieran Halpin on the live sampler of the
3rd St Patrick's Day Celebration Festival (1992) (available only in
Germany, I'm afraid) and by Brian on "Back Of The Northwind" (1992)
Brian's intro to the song was: "200 years ago there was a woman named
Flora McDonald. Very very famous in Scotland, she saved Bonnie Prince
Charlie after the civil war of 1745. For that she is a real hero
in Scotland. With no reason, because Bonnie Prince Charlie was a complete
idiot. Something like Margaret Thatcher's son for example. Maybe worse.
The song is a hymn to women's power."
This is a kind of modern Jacobite song. The Cuillins are a mountain
range on the Scottish Isle of Skye, where Charlie Stuart fled to by boat
after the battle of Culloden. This trip and Flora McDonald are
commemorated in the famous "Skye Boat Song" (SKYEBOAT). In her later life,
after having spent several years in prison for helping Charlie flee,
Flora emigrated with her husband to South Carolina. In 1776, her husband
fought for the English forces. After the American victory, she returned
to her native Skye and died there. MJ
copyright Magnetic Music
filenam
MJ
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!