Context: The Foggy Dew is an Irish rebel song written around 1919 by Canon Charles O’Neill of County Antrim, using an older traditional melody. It was composed in the aftermath of the 1916 Easter Rising and reflects growing nationalist opposition to Irish participation in World War I under British command. The song contrasts dying for the British Empire abroad with dying for Irish independence at home, capturing a major shift in Irish public sentiment during the revolutionary period.
I think every rendition of The Foggy Dew I’ve ever heard has given me chills.
Twas England bade our wild geese go
That small nations might be free
But their lonely graves are by Suvla’s waves
Or the shore of the gray North Sea
But had they died by Pearse’s side
Or fought with Cathal Brugha
Their names we would keep where the Fenians sleep
'Neath the shroud of the foggy dew