A Nation Once Again

Subject: A Nation Once Again
From: Len Wallace
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 05:32 PM

The old "A Nation Once Again" was once considered as runner up for the Irish national anthem.

There is a line that reads:

of Greece and Rome that bravely stood three hundred men and three men.

Could anyone tell me what this in reference to? What 303 men?

Len Wallace

---

Click for lyrics in the Digital Tradition

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 05:46 PM

Click here for a previous thread that at least guesses at the answer. The lyrics are listed in the list of song titles in the database, but no lyrics. Did the copyright cops get this one from us? After all, it's rather recent - early part of the 19th century. Click here for the lyrics from an alternate source
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: Wolfgang
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 06:06 PM

My guess: 480 B.C. "Second Persian invasion under Xerxes. Battle of Thermopylae, King Leonidas leads 300 Spartans could not hold pass against Persians. Persians invade Athens and destroy temples on Acropolis ."

This battle is famous for 300 men (actually more, but the 300 are the personal guard of Leonidas; it is unknown how many men he had, but not much more than 1000) at this bottle-neck sacrificed themselves to stop the big Persian army (240 000) for about a week and allow the bulk of the Greek army to flee. A betrayer showed Xerxes a path leading to the back of the Greek. All of them died.

the "and three men" are just for the rhyme.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: j0_77
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 06:34 PM

Wolfgang there is a real actual connection here - the song is accurate in it's referemce to Greece, there came to Ireland some Greeks who were exploring in their ships and they settled at what is now Dublin - I am not sure bout the dates but it was BC some hundreds of years. There have been 'artefacts' found in the region.

Some 'wag'(Irish Sl for comedian)said the Greeks had gotten lost in the Irish Mist and could not find their way back home - there is a little bit of truth in that :)

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 07:30 PM

There seem to be some glitches in the title search. TRy the full-text search for [nation once again] and you'll find the text.

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: Penny S.
Date: 03 Sep 99 - 07:47 PM

Would the three, since Rome is mentioned, be Horatius and his two friends keeping the bridge? They would fit with Leonidas and the 300 in theme well.

Penny

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 03:09 AM

I tried a fulltext search, Dick - that song ain't there. don't know about the PC version of the database - I just downloaded that today and haven't installed it.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: j0_77
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 04:42 AM

Are.n I daft hehe - never thought anyone would even be the slightest bit interested in truth! Still ... ther was this geezer in Greece way back called Hippocrates anywho he observed that when you feel yourself getting angry just blink your eyes to be unangry. It actually works, perhaps that is why (wondering) the Irish with their Greek genes are so slow to war but eventually when they do get on with it, such persistent warriors.

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: Penny S.
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 05:30 AM

So I should have checked the cross-referencing. Sorry Joe. But at least it shows that modern audiences can pick up on classical references independently.

Penny

(Oh yes, and the other year someone found a Roman camp near Dublin, as well)

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: MudGuard
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 01:25 PM

Joe, I just tried to find "A nation once again" in the db, and I was successful.
I just typed "nation again" (without the quotes) in the search box and clicked "Go". If I remember correctly it was number 9 (I closed that window too early) in the list of songs found.
Andreas (aka MudGuard)

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: Wolfgang
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 02:43 PM

congratulations, Andreas. I had tried at least a dozen different ways to find it in the DB and failed with each of them. Neither [nation once again] as Dick has written nor nation once again finds it for me. I know a lot about search, meanwhile, but there's much more I don't know.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 03:10 PM

Yep, nation again finds the song (click); but for the life of me, I can't figure out why it won't come up with nation once again or through the title list. This is more puzzling than the problem we had pulling up Nova Scotia songs before. I'll let Max know about this one (click).
-Joe-

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: j0_77
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 03:30 PM

700 years ..now that's persistent..

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: paddymac
Date: 04 Sep 99 - 08:23 PM

I recall reading a press clip about a year ago reporting on the find of some Anglo-Saxon ruins in Dublin pre-dating the Viking s, but don't recall more accurately when they were there. Truth be known, it's harder to imagine a coastal-sailing people of the North Atlantic area that didn't stop on the auld sod at sometime or other. Whether in sufficient numbers and of sufficient duration to leave archeological traces is another question. Kind of makes me wonder whether there were some "coastee" songs reminiscent of "Please, Mr. Custer, I don't wanna go"?

Subject: RE: A Nation Once Again
From: MudGuard
Date: 10 Sep 99 - 05:52 AM

Joe, I just looked at the title list (the one you get from the search box by clicking on "All titles").
"A Nation Once Again" is there as number 4925.
It is sorted in with the songs starting with "n".
It is also in the list if you click on the "N" in the search box.
Do you use a different title list? Or did you look for it between the song titles starting with "A"?
Both "A" and "The" are not considered for sorting...