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| I do not know what Erin go bragh is or means. | |||
| ''To read about the horse named Erin Go Bragh, see ].'' | |||
| '''Erin Go Bragh''' (also commonly spelled '''Erin Go Braugh''') is the Anglicization of a ] phrase used to express allegiance to ]. It is most often translated as "Ireland Forever", and pronounced {{IPA|/ˈɛrɪn gə brɔː/}}. | |||
| ==Origin== | |||
| Speakers of the ] often state that the phrase is a corruption of the Irish "Éire go brách", which would be pronounced {{IPA|/ˈeːrʲə gə brɑːx/}}. However, it should be noted that the ] phrase "Éirinn gu bràth", which literally means "Ireland until the Day of Judgement", is pronounced almost identically to the Anglicized phrase. | |||
| It may seem surprising that a phrase which has come to so strongly represent Ireland could have come not from the Irish (Gaeilge) but instead from the Scottish (Gàidhlig). However, a Scottish song from the ] entitled "Erin-go-Bragh" may have had something to do with this unusual progression. It tells the story of a Highland Scot who is mistaken for an Irishman. The first two verses are presented here, and a link to the lyrics may be found in the ''External links'' section. | |||
| :My name's Duncan Campbell from the shire of Argyll | |||
| :I've travelled this country for many's the mile | |||
| :I've travelled through Ireland, Scotland and a' | |||
| :And the name I go under's bold Erin-go-bragh | |||
| :One night in Auld Reekie as I walked down the street | |||
| :A saucy big polis I chanced for to meet | |||
| :He glowered in my face and he gi'ed me some jaw | |||
| :Sayin' "When cam' ye over, bold Erin-go-bragh?" | |||
| ==Emigrant nationalism== | |||
| ] | |||
| However the phrase became Anglicized, it was already in use as "Erin Go Bragh" by ]. In that year, a group of Irishmen serving in the United States Army during the U.S. - Mexican War deserted and joined the Mexican side. These soldiers, known as ''Los San Patricios'', or ], flew as their standard a green flag with a harp on it, with the motto "Erin Go Bragh" underneath it. Variations on this flag design have been used ever since to express Irish nationalism. | |||
| By 1862 there was an emigrant ship operated by the Black Ball Line called the Erin go Bragh, which had the dubious honour of making the longest trip from Britain to Moreton Bay, Australia. She suffered many dead on the voyage, according to an unpublished contemporary account (in this contributor's possession) and, ironically, arrived in the same week that Black Ball's Young Australia completed the fastest crossing. | |||
| ==External links== | |||
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| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Revision as of 00:15, 2 March 2006
I do not know what Erin go bragh is or means.