Garryowen (air) - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The song is the theme of the 1940 movie The Fighting 69th by Warner Bros. 1940 starring James Cagney, Pat O'Brien and Alan Hale which chronicles the World War I exploits of the 69th Infantry Regiment, New York National Guard, (the famed "Fighting 69th" ) and appears numerous times throughout it.
• They Died with their Boots On (Errol Flynn 1941 – lyrics actually sung).
• Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, sung by the cavalry troopers and also used as part of the score.
• The Long Gray Line (Tyrone Power 1955 – band company playing on the parade grounds at West Point and integrated throughout the score as a love theme between the main character Marty Maher and his wife-to-be Mary O'Donnell).
• Little Big Man (Dustin Hoffman 1970 – fife instrumental played several times).
• Son of the Morning Star (Gary Cole 1991 – Whistled by Custer and his regiment on the march and played by a practicing band).
• Played in Gangs of New York at an American Nativist society celebration – perhaps, ironically, given the song's immigrant heritage.
• Rough Riders (1997), sung by Elan Oberon, the wife of director John Milius, accompanied by a military band, to the Rough Riders as they depart San Antonio, Texas by rail on their way to Tampa Bay, Florida.
• The song is featured in the movie The Last Samurai during the Winchester exhibition.
• Used by the forces of Skye in the Mechwarrior novel, Flight of the Falcon by Victor Milan. It is also sung, with slightly different lyrics.
• In Winston Groom's novel Better Times Than These the song is mentioned several times.
• In 1993, the popular Civil War Music Company, The 97th Regimental String Band, recorded 'Garryowen' on their 'Marching Along' (Volume 6), a CD of Marching tunes.
• Of course in the movie "We were soldiers once – and young" about the battle in Vietnam's Ia Drang valley in 1965.
• The American acoustic musician Tim O'Brien set new lyrics to the melody for his song Mick Ryan's Lament, a fictional story about two Irish brothers who emigrate to America, one to die in the Civil War, the second to die at the Battle of Little Big Horn Actually Mick Ryan's Lament was written by Robert Dunlap, but was later recorded by Tim O'Brien and Ken O'Malley.