Talk:Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye

When Johnny Comes Marching Home
In 1883, Patrick Gilmore announced that he had developed "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" from "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye." "When Johnny Comes Marching Home: The Leader 10:12 (October 1885) 2; cited in Hazen, 127.

Therefore, I will edit the page correspondingly. Academic decathlete (talk) 06:27, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

This hasn't been changed yet a number of years later, can somebody append it! The fact that this even needed a direct quote reeks of American's being butt-hurt about their most famous war song not even being American in origin. Ha! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.8.131.151 (talk) 12:46, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

In fact, Gilmore never said anything about "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye." What he did say was that he'd used an unnamed existing tune that he'd heard someone humming. Geoghegan's original tune for "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" was quite unlike the one heard and used by Gilmore. See Lighter, "The Best Anti-War Song" for details. PhD (talk) 18:18, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

There are a lot of references to Lighter's book in this article, but I can't find any reviews of the book in academic publications, nor any other writing by Lighter supporting the claims expressed here. The book is available through online booksellers like Amazon and B&N, but the publisher website just says "Coming Soon." The Lighter book has not been purchased by any libraries in Worldcat in the year since it has been published. To be blunt: is this reference to Lighter's work simply a form of promotion to drive book sales? Benhockenberry (talk) 18:20, 13 November 2013 (UTC)


 * I added the references to Lighter's book. I have no interest in its commercial success - it doesn't seem like the kind of thing that's really published to make money anyway.  I do know Lighter slightly, in the sense that we're both on the same listserv.  Lighter is a distinguished academic and the book itself is well-researched, but the publisher doesn't seem to have done much to promote it, hence the lack of reviews and library purchases.  John M Baker (talk) 19:08, 13 November 2013 (UTC)

The final, modern verse
The first time I heard this final verse sung ("They're running out the guns again...") was in New York by prolific songwriter Tommy Makem during the run-up to the "First" Gulf War of 1990-91. This song had long been a regular feature in Makem's repertoire. I suspect he added the verse at that time, reflecting his strong feelings about the matter. I have no evidence to back this supposition up, but post it here on the talk page for what it's worth. Trevor Hanson (talk) 21:47, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

I learned this song from an old Mel Bay book that cited the origens to about 1805 when Irish conscripts were returning home after fighting for England in Cylone Island. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.235.114.217 (talk) 00:00, 29 October 2008 (UTC)

Why did ye run from me and the child
quote from the article: "Why did ye run from me and the child?" sometimes replaces "Why did ye run from me and the child?"

I don't know what it could replace, but replacing itself is quite philosophical, maybe someone could be so kind to correct this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.179.194.122 (talk) 12:50, 10 July 2008 (UTC)

Dr Strangelove
Isn't this the song used at the end of the film Dr Strangelove? -- 87.144.116.248 (talk) 12:17, 12 February 2010 (UTC)
 * No, that's probably meant to be the iconic American Civil War song When Johnny Comes Marching Home, although, as it's instrumental, one cannot be sure, as they share the same melody, but the context would imply that it's WJCMH rather than JIHKY.88.131.91.2 (talk) 12:51, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Audio File?
Could we put a mp3 file with the music to this song? There's got to be a non-copyrighted version, this song is in the public domain. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 134.173.109.115 (talk) 15:36, 19 May 2010 (UTC)

Last stanza
In the last part of the last stanza it says: No they will never take MY sons again, whereas in the Spanish wikipedia it reads: No they never will take OUR sons again, I'd like to know which one is the correct one? Because to me saying MY sons sounds rather strange; taking into account that it is sung In plural, as apparently the singer and johnny(A stick in me hand and a drop in me eye) were both sent to Ceylon

External links modified
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 * Added archive http://web.archive.org/web/20110417195858/http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9010687703381361130 to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9010687703381361130

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Cheers.—cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 07:36, 21 March 2016 (UTC)

Humorous?
"Originally seen as humorous" - I can't wrap my head around these lyrics being funny to anyone - someone loses both legs, both arms, and his eyes in a war; who should find that humorous other than an out-and-out psychopath? --2A02:8108:8380:5060:0:0:0:2932 (talk) 2A02:8108:8380:5060:0:0:0:2932 (talk) 00:15, 31 December 2023 (UTC)