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Using a traditional Irish melody, these words were written by Francis “Frank the Poet” Macnamara, a rebellious convict. Though an inmate at several penal settlements, Macnamara had never been an inmate at Moreton Bay, so the story of this song, including the death of Captain Patrick Logan, must have been related to him. As the commandant at the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement, near present day Brisbane, Logan was known as a tyrant and a real flogger, and when killed by the aborigines in 1830, the prisoners were overjoyed, and they celebrated all night.
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Macnamara died a free man in Australia, digging for gold. He was famous for being able to compose rhyming verse on the spot, and would start his recitations as follows :

“ My name is Frank MacNamara
A native of Cashell, County Tipperary
Sworn to be a tyrant's foe
And while I've life I'll crow ” .
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lyrics

============== LYRICS ==============
Moreton Bay
(Traditional)
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[V.1]
One Sunday morning as I went walking, by Brisbane Waters I chanced to stray,
I heard a convict his fate bewailing, as on the sunny river bank he lay ;
"I am a native of Erin's island but banished now from my native shore,
They stole me from my aged parents and from the maiden whom I do adore.”
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[V.2]
"I've been a prisoner at Port Macquarie, at Norfolk Island and Emu Plains,
At Castle Hill and at cursed Toongabbie, at all these settlements I've been in chains ;
But of all places of condemnation, and penal stations in New South Wales,
To Moreton Bay, I can find no equal : excessive tyranny each day prevails.”
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[V.3]
"For three long years I was beastly treated, and heavy irons on my legs I wore,
My back with flogging was lacerated, and ofttimes painted with my crimson gore,
And many a man from downright starvation lies mouldering now underneath the clay,
And Captain Logan he had us mangled all at the triangles of Moreton Bay.”
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[V.4]
"Like the Egyptians and ancient Hebrews, we were oppressed under Logan's yoke,
Till a native black lying there in ambush did deal this tyrant his mortal stroke.
My fellow prisoners, be exhilarated, that all like monsters such a death may find !
And when from bondage we’re liberated, our former sufferings shall fade from mind."
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credits

from Convicts and Bushrangers, track released November 20, 2019
Words by Francis “Frank the Poet” Macnamara.(1810 – 1861) Tune traditional. Violin by Mikhail Bugaev

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The Queensland Tiger

The Queensland Tiger covers traditional Australian ballads mainly from 19C.: e.g. Henry Lawson, Banjo Paterson, Breaker Morant, Charles Thatcher, etc…. true to the original works.
website : www.thequeenslandtiger.com or Youtube channel : The Queensland Tiger ... more

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