Green Upon the Cape — An Irish Exile Ballad from 1798

Описание: Green Upon the Cape is a traditional Irish street ballad dating from around 1798, the year of the United Irishmen rebellion.
The song gives voice to a young Irish rebel forced into exile for wearing green — a colour that had come to symbolise Irish unity and resistance.

In the aftermath of the rebellion, Ireland was under martial law.
Although there was no single law banning the colour green, wearing it could mark a person as a rebel and was often treated as evidence of sedition. Many were arrested, imprisoned, transported, or executed on that basis. In this context, green was not merely a colour, but a declaration of identity — and therefore a danger.

The ballad follows the singer’s journey from Ireland through Belfast, where he bids farewell to his parents, and onward to France, where Irish exiles were often received as political allies. In Paris, the singer meets a French general — “young Boney,” a reference to Napoleon Bonaparte — and describes Ireland’s suffering, telling how men and women were punished simply for wearing green.

Rather than a song of victory, Green Upon the Cape is a song of witness and fidelity: of leaving home without renouncing belief, of carrying Ireland across the sea when it could not safely be carried at home.

GREEN UPON THE CAPE

I’m a lad that’s forced an exile
From my own native land;
For an oath that’s passed against me
In this country I can’t stand.
But while I’m at my liberty
I will make my escape;
I’m a poor distressed Croppy
For the Green on my cape!
For the Green on my cape!
For the Green on my cape!
I’m distressed, but not disheartened,
For the Green on my cape!

But I’ll go down to Belfast,
To see that seaport gay,
And tell my aged parents
In this country I can’t stay;
O ’tis dark will be their sorrow,
But no truer hearts I’ve seen;
And they’d rather see me dying
Than a traitor to the Green!
O the wearing the Green!
O the wearing the Green!
May the curse of Cromwell darken
Each traitor to the Green!

When I went down to Belfast,
And saw that seaport grand,
My aged parents blessed me,
And blessed poor Ireland,

Then I went unto a captain,
And bargained with him cheap;
He told me that his whole ship’s crew
Wore Green on the cape!
O the Green on the cape!
O the Green on the cape!
God’s blessing guard the noble boys
With Green on the cape!

’Twas early the next morning
Our gallant ship set sail;
Kind Heaven did protect her,
With a pleasant Irish gale.
We landed safe in Paris,
Where victualling was cheap—
They knew we were United,
We wore Green on the cape!
We wore Green on the cape!
We wore Green on the cape!
They treated us like brothers
For the Green on the cape!

Then forward stepped young Boney,
And took me by the hand,
Saying, “How is old Ireland,
And how does she stand?”
“It’s as poor, distressed a nation
As ever you have seen;
They are hanging men and women
For the wearing of the Green!
For the wearing of the Green!
For the wearing of the Green!
They are hanging men and women
For the wearing of the Green!”

“Take courage now, my brave boys,
For here you have good friends,
And we’ll send a convoy with you
Down by their Orange dens;
And if they should oppose us,
With our weapons sharp and keen
We’ll make them rue and curse the day
That e’er they saw the Green!
That e’er they saw the Green!
That e’er they saw the Green!
We’ll show them our authority
For wearing of the Green!”

O may the wind of Freedom
Soon send young Boney o’er,
And we’ll plant the Tree of Liberty
Upon our Shamrock shore;
O we’ll plant it with our weapons,
While the English tyrants gape,
To see their bloody flag torn down
To Green on the cape!
O the wearing the Green!
O the wearing the Green!
God grant us soon to see that day,
And freely wear the Green!

Street Ballad, 1798

“Green Upon the Cape”
Irish street ballad, c. 1798

Traditional song — public domain
Musical arrangement © 2026 Irish Longing