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The Sick Bed Of Cuchulainn Lyrics
McCormack and Richard Tauber are singing by the bed
There's a glass of punch below your feet and an angel at your head
There's devils on each side of you with bottles in their hands
You need one more drop of poison and you'll dream of foreign lands
When you pissed yourself in Frankfurt and got syph down in Cologne
And you heard the rattling death trains as you lay there all alone
Frank Ryan brought you whiskey in a brothel in Madrid
And you decked some fucking blackshirt who was cursing all the Yids
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in the chair
And in the Euston Tavern you screamed it was your shout
But they wouldn't give you service so you kicked the windows out
They took you out into the street and kicked you in the brains
So you walked back in through a bolted door and did it all again
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in the chair
You remember that foul evening when you heard the banshees howl
There was lousy drunken bastards singing Billy is in the bowl
They took you up to midnight mass and left you in the lurch
So you dropped a button in the plate and spewed up in the church
Now you'll sing a song of liberty for blacks and paks and jocks
And they'll take you from this dump you're in and stick you in a box
Then they'll take you to Cloughprior and shove you in the ground
But you'll stick your head back out and shout "we'll have another round"
At the graveside of Cuchulainn we'll kneel around and pray
And God is in His heaven, and Billy's down by the bay
There's a glass of punch below your feet and an angel at your head
There's devils on each side of you with bottles in their hands
You need one more drop of poison and you'll dream of foreign lands
And you heard the rattling death trains as you lay there all alone
Frank Ryan brought you whiskey in a brothel in Madrid
And you decked some fucking blackshirt who was cursing all the Yids
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in the chair
But they wouldn't give you service so you kicked the windows out
They took you out into the street and kicked you in the brains
So you walked back in through a bolted door and did it all again
At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer
And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in the chair
There was lousy drunken bastards singing Billy is in the bowl
They took you up to midnight mass and left you in the lurch
So you dropped a button in the plate and spewed up in the church
And they'll take you from this dump you're in and stick you in a box
Then they'll take you to Cloughprior and shove you in the ground
But you'll stick your head back out and shout "we'll have another round"
At the graveside of Cuchulainn we'll kneel around and pray
And God is in His heaven, and Billy's down by the bay
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'S about an Irish nationalist and anti-fascist looking back on his life, and about Gaelic Self-destruction, as said above, and about Irish Folklore. Specifically, it sounds like the Narrator was involved in the Spanish Civil War- John McCormack and Richard Tauber were famous tenors of that era, and Frank Ryan was an IRA member who led Irish Volunteers against Franco's Nazi-backed Fascists- the 'fucking blackshirts' who ran the death-trains; it sounds like the narrator was a member of Ryan's International Brigade, 'Connolly's Column'. After the war, the narrator descends into Alcoholism (the second verse describes a single drunken rampage in London, while he's pretty much gone in the bridge), and dies a classic Gaelic death- drunken, furious, passionate to the last- Cloughprior, in this case, refers to a cemetary in County Tipperary. At the same time, the narrator's life parallels that of the doomed Irish Hero Cúchulainn. A great warrior, he was said to fly into unquenchable rages in battle, and who, when his strength was finally sapped, tied himself to a rock to face his enemies, in order to die on his feet- an echo of the narrator's defiant love of liberty to the end.
As a side note, Cúchulainn was decapitated after his death- "But you'll stick your head back out and shout 'we'll have another round'" takes on a slightly different meaning with that in mind
I've been listening to this song for years, but never really knew what it was about. Thanks for your insights!
I've been listening to this song for years, but never really knew what it was about. Thanks for your insights!
@Anacharis yes, but also there is the actual story serglige con culain - the sickbed of cuchulainn which the pogues directly titled the song for.
@Anacharis yes, but also there is the actual story serglige con culain - the sickbed of cuchulainn which the pogues directly titled the song for.
And spewed up in the church
Back in the nineties I was listening to this song and also Viva La Quinta Brigada by Christy Moore. Both songs mention Frank Ryan - I asked my father about him and he said I should talk to my Gran. I knew my Gran had supported the anti-fascists in the Spanish Civil War by knitting balaclavas and now she told me about this and also hearing La Pasionaria speak in Manchester, throwing stones at blackshirts and a bit of Frank Ryan's history - he was a Church of Ireland minister I gather.
@Moonwood I think you are confusing Frank Ryan with the line in Viva La Quinta Brigada "Bob Hilliard was a Church of Ireland pastor".
@Moonwood I think you are confusing Frank Ryan with the line in Viva La Quinta Brigada "Bob Hilliard was a Church of Ireland pastor".
Ryan wasn't a minister, he was a teacher, journalist, politician and fighter.
Ryan wasn't a minister, he was a teacher, journalist, politician and fighter.
I checked and found you were right. I had misremembered the lyric.
I checked and found you were right. I had misremembered the lyric.
Shane explained that he lived at his uncle's Irish pub in Essex for some time and this was written about a conglomeration of characters who went in there - pissheads basically - who had loads of tales from their pasts. One got syphillis in Cologne, one got drunk with Frank Ryan (the leader of the Irish members of the International Brigade who fought Franco's fascists in the Spanish Civil War) and one who was on a bender in the Euston Tavern (a pub near the London railway station), etc., etc. He also name-checks his local cemetery in North Tipperary, Ireland, Cloughprior. Throughout Shane's writing there are lots of mentions of places in this area.
I was really impressed by his mention of Frank Ryan. There aren't even many Irish people who know who he is so for Shane to mention him in one of his early songs could demonstrate what a good knowledge of Irish Republican history that his family had and how they brought him up to know this history. For the record, Frank Ryan not only was a republican leader in Ireland and the leader of the small Irish contingent that fought against the Fascists in Spain but he bizarrely also visited Nazi Germany during WW2 to see if there was any common ground between the IRA and Hitler.
Christy Moore's "Viva la Quinta Brigade" is all about the Irish volunteers in Spain and was released about a year before Rum, Sodomy and The Lash and so it could be that Shane had simply picked off the history from Christy Moore.
It's a bit more complicated than Frank Ryan visited Nazi Germany.
It's a bit more complicated than Frank Ryan visited Nazi Germany.
He was captured in Spain in 1938 and held in prison in Madrid until 1940 when the Spanish handed him over to German Intelligence. He was brought to Berlin where he was reunited with Sean Russell,
He was captured in Spain in 1938 and held in prison in Madrid until 1940 when the Spanish handed him over to German Intelligence. He was brought to Berlin where he was reunited with Sean Russell,
Russell was at that time Chief of Staff of the IRA and HE had gone to Berlin on behalf of the IRA to forge links with the Nazis. It's not as bizarre as it might seem, after all most of the guns for the 1916 rising came from the Kaiser's Germany, Wolfe Tone and Emmett...
Russell was at that time Chief of Staff of the IRA and HE had gone to Berlin on behalf of the IRA to forge links with the Nazis. It's not as bizarre as it might seem, after all most of the guns for the 1916 rising came from the Kaiser's Germany, Wolfe Tone and Emmett got support from Napolean's France, essentially both sides were thinking along the lines of "my enemy's enemy is my friend".
When Ryan arrived there was a plan underway to transport Russell back to Ireland to make contact with German operatives there, Ryan agreed to go with him, Russell died on the way and they decided to abort the mission and Ryan was brought back to Berlin where he lived until his death in 1944.
He had reconciled his political differences with the IRA leadership (he split from the IRA in the 1930s to form a left wing party called Republican Congress) and was effectively the IRA representative in Germany from 1940-1944 although after 1942 when the US had entered the war the potential for an invasion of Ireland by either Britain or Germany had pretty much vanished so the usefulness of the IRA to the Nazis and the usefulness of the Nazis to the IRA reduced massively.
@Bigblue1894 @HorseQuack
@Bigblue1894 @HorseQuack
Great comment HorseQuack
Great comment HorseQuack
This is written as a defiant death bed rant from an exile returned to Ireland. He is recalling demons and drunken rampages that have marked his life
why must you repeat almost word for word what is said in "the rest of the best"? you could at least be somewhat original or state your source. :P
Strange-this is probably more applicable to Shane Mc Gowan now than ever.
it perfectly describes the celtic urge to self destruct coupled with the luck of the irish in that the narrator describes a long life of alcholism
That's some great information Anacharis, Thanks. A Modern Cuchulainn, I like it.
That's a really good explanation, I knew about and loved the folklore twined into the song but I didn't know about Irish nationalist themes or who the people were. Thanks :)