Pictured above is an “anti-treaty” unit of the Irish Republican Army patrolling Dublin’s Grafton Street in 1922. The treaty in question was the proposed Anglo-Irish Treaty between the self-declared Irish Republic and Great Britain that would end the Irish war of independence and establish 26 of Ireland’s 32 counties as the Irish Free State, a semi-autonomous dominion of Great Britain. The remaining 6 counties in the north of Ireland would remain under direct British rule.

In early 1922, the treaty was being bitterly debated by the Dail Eireann, Ireland’s equivalent of our Congress. The large Sinn Fein minority in the Dail and the hard core elements of the Irish Republican Army opposed the treaty as a dishonorable compromise which would not establish Ireland’s full independence from Great Britain. The pro-treaty forces argued that, in addition to ending the conflict with Great Britain, the resulting Irish Free State would be a stepping stone to a fully independent Irish  Republic.

While that debate was underway, the gunmen pictured above strolled down Grafton Street in a show of support for Sinn Fein and as a warning to the treaty’s supporters. Nevertheless, the treaty was narrowly ratified by a vote of 64 to 57 after which Eamonn de Valera (who later became Ireland’s President) and the Sinn Fein delegation stormed out of the Dail.

Within months of the vote, the Irish Civil War erupted and, despite the fact that the Irish Free State later became the fully independent Irish Republic, the fighting has continued at varying levels of intensity down to the present day. The main point of contention has been British control of Northern Ireland.

In 1973, when “the Troubles” were at their height, Phil Coulter wrote “The Town I Loved So Well”, a ballad about growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland. The last two verses describe the devastating effect of the fighting on Coulter’s hometown.

The first time I heard the ballad was on Saint Patrick’s Day approximately 20 years ago in a dive bar just outside Philadelphia. It was sung by a beautiful and talented young Irish nun. The place was a dump, the crowd was drunk, and the usual gang of pretend IRA types had been belting out the standard blood-thirsty kill-all-the-Brits rebel songs. But a hush fell over us as this modest and somewhat timid young woman stepped onto the make-shift stage with her guitar.  She demurely announced in her brogue that she was sister so-and-so from Ireland who was visiting nearby Chestnut Hill College and that she wished to share with us a song about her home. And with that, there was a transformation as she proceeded to sing Coulter’s ballad in a clear, lilting and engaging voice.

She literally cast a spell over everyone there, and, by the time she had finished, there were few dry eyes in the place. Even the make-believe IRA guys gave her a standing ovation.

So grab a brew and give a careful listen to the lyrics as Paddy Reilly of the Dubliners sings “The Town I Loved So Well”.