The Emerald Isle

By Arthur Sullivan, Basil Hood, Edward German and Mint Editions

Terence O'Brian returns to Ireland to discover his home has been colonized by the English, so he devises a new plan to reeducate its people. He partners with an English professor who switches sides to aid him in his efforts. Irish villagers are forced to live under England’s rule and taught their dialect, history and culture. When Terence O'Brian returns from his studies abroad he notices the drastic change. In an effort to preserve their remaining culture, he tries to reinstate native customs. With from help from Professor Bunn, who was initially hired by the English, they work to undo years of damage. The villagers create a plot to stamp out England’s influence, once and for all. The Emerald Isle is a rich collaboration between three of the most popular theatrical talents of the nineteenth century. It’s a compelling story about the importance of culture, identity and honoring one’s history. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Emerald Isle is both modern and readable.

Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.

With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mint Editions
• Release date: Jun 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781513286440

Arthur Sullivan

Sydney Grundy (1848–1914) and Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900) were successful collaborators during the late nineteenth century. Grundy attended Owens College where he studied law before he embarked on his theatrical career. Elsewhere, Sullivan was raised in a musical family where he learned to play multiple instruments at an early age. He would go on to produce H.M.S. Pinafore (1878) and The Pirates of Penzance (1879). Meanwhile, Grundy worked on A Little Change (1872), A Pair of Spectacles (1889) and A Village Priest (1890).

Book preview

Act I

SCENE.—The scene is outside the park gates of the Lord Lieutenant’s country residence. Blind Murphy’s cabin at side. The stage is empty.

Peasants, men and girls, enter gradually, and gather one by one.

No. 1. OPENING CHORUS.

(Arthur Sullivan)

GIRLS: Have ye heard the brave news that is goin’ around?

MEN: Do ye mane that Blind Murphy’s owld pig has been found?

GIRLS: Sure, it’s better than that what ye mane, I’ll be bound

MEN: Are ye spakin’ of Terence O’Brian at all?

GIRLS: And it’s Terence has sent us a warnin’ to say

He is secretly coming among us to-day,

MEN: And the Saxons may send us to Botany Bay,

But it’s Ireland that’s ready to answer his call!

ALL: For it’s Terence they tell has an elegant style,

And there’s not a colleen but would die for his smile;

He’s the red-hottest rebel in all of this Isle,

And that’s why we’re howlding this open-air ball!

The men and girls take partners and dance. After short dance.

GIRLS: Now be aisy wid taisin’

And squazin’

And sazin’

My waist wid your arm like a bundle o’ hay!

It’s meself that is dressed

In my best

And distressed

To be tumbled and pressed in that impudent way.

MEN: Now be aisy wid taisin’

Is squazin’

Displazin’?

It’s wasted the arm that is empty to-day!

It’s meself that is dressed

In my best

And distressed

To be tumbled and pressed to keep out of your way!

Will I bid ye good-day?

GIRLS: Now be aisy wid taisin’!

Is squazin’

So plazin’?

MEN: Sure now, my hat I’ll be raisin’,

And walkin’ away!

GIRLS: Now be aisy wid taisin’!

MEN: Acoushla mavourneen, acoushla macrae!

GIRLS: If you’re hat you’ll be raisin’ and walkin’ away,

Now, sure it’s meself will not stand in your way!

Enter Terence.

No. 2. RECITATIVE.

TERENCE: My friends!

NORA: A Saxon stranger!

TERENCE: No, mavourneen!

I am an Irishman, and love my country,

Though to my shame, I speak with English accent!

For as a baby I was brought to England,

Brought up and educated there—at Eton

And Oxford University. But lately

Have I come back to Erin; only lately

Has that Andromeda learnt to regard me

As her Perseus!

ALL: You are?

TERENCE: Terence O’Brian!

Rebel or patriot—which will you call me?

ALL: Hooroo for you! Here’s to you, Terence, darlin’!

No. 2a. SONG.—TERENCE with CHORUS.

(Arthur Sullivan)

TERENCE: I’m descended from Brian Boru,

CHORUS: Hooroo!

TERENCE: My blood is the elegant hue,

CHORUS: True blue!

TERENCE: That colours the veins of the fortunate few

Who are sons of the Kings of Erin!

And whenever a Saxon Viceroy comes

To Ireland’s shore

With cannons’ roar

And fifes and drums

And flags galore,

Who’ll join in the Saxon cheerin’?

CHORUS: Who? Who?

TERENCE: Not I, for one,

The worthy son

Of Brian Boru!

CHORUS: Hooroo for you!

TERENCE: But as he would have done

My father’s son

Will do!

CHORUS: Hooroo

For Brian Boru!

And you,

ALL: Bowld Rebel O’Brian!

TERENCE: Now if Brian Boru were about—

CHORUS: We’d shout!

TERENCE: The Saxon invader he’d flout—

CHORUS: Rout out!

TERENCE: And such importations in future no doubt

He would put a restrictive tax on!

So if ever a Lord Lieutenant comes

To Ireland’s shore

With cannons’ roar

And fifes and drums

And flags galore,

Who’ll help to get rid of the Saxon?

CHORUS: Who? Who?

TERENCE: Well I, for one,

The worthy son

Of Brian Boru!

CHORUS: Hooroo for you!

TERENCE: For as he would have done,

His father’s son

Will do!

CHORUS: Hooroo

For Brian Boru!

And you,

ALL: Bowld Rebel O’Brian!

TERENCE (to Nora): And now, mavourneen, you will not again mistake me for a Saxon, will you? (To others) It is an ever-burning shame to me that I do not speak with the brogue which is my birthright. More—it is an ever-burning injustice! For had not the grasping Government of England purchased my father’s dilapidated estate, to serve, after extensive repairs, as a summer residence for their Viceroy, my parents would not have been lured to the luxurious lap of London, where I, their child, was taught by alien nurses to lisp a tyrant tongue! Within those gates lies my father’s fine estate, wrested from him by the tempting offer of a rapacious Government!

ALL: Shame!

TERENCE: There rise my father’s chimneys, soiled with Saxon smoke, fouled by the fuel that prepares the banquets of a Saxon Viceroy!

Enter Murphy.

ALL: Shame! Shame!

MURPHY: May I speak to your honour?

TERENCE: My honour is my countrymen’s. If you are a countryman—

DAN: Devil a doubt! Blind Murphy’s never seen a town!

MURPHY: And it’s Blind Fiddlers we’ve been from father to son for more generations than I can remember. But it’s ourselves (who ought to be your tenantry) that share the injustice with you in the matter of the brogue, or the want of it. It’s the Lord Lieutenant forces us to speak Irish with an English accent.

TERENCE: Is it possible?

MURPHY: It is that. For what with his free classes for English Elocution and Deportment, it’s the Irish brogue and other characteristics that he tramples under his feet by settin’ his face