All Around My Hat (song)
The song "All Around my Hat" (Roud 567, Laws P31) is of nineteenth century English origin. In an early version, dating from the 1820s, a Cockney costermonger vowed to be true to his fiancée, who had been sentenced to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft and to mourn his loss of her by wearing green willow sprigs in his hatband for "a twelve-month and a day," in a traditional symbol of mourning. The song has become famous by Steeleye Span in 1976.
In Ireland, Peadar Kearney adapted the song to make it relate to a Republican lass whose lover has died in the Easter Rising, and who swears to wear the Irish tricolor in her hat in remembrance.
Read more about All Around My Hat (song): Synopsis, Commentary
Famous quotes containing the word hat:
“It’s no go the picture palace, it’s no go the stadium,
It’s no go the country cot with a pot of pink geraniums.
It’s no go the Government grants, it’s no go the elections,
Sit on your arse for fifty years and hang your hat on a pension.”
—Louis MacNeice (1907–1963)