Description given on Youtube:
Celtic Mayhem performs the Australian version of “The Wild Colonial Boy” during their Easter Morning set at the 2012 Miami Florida Renaissance Festival, held at the historic Cauley Village Square in South Miami, Florida.
Featuring Ty Billings on guitar with lead vocals, Jack Stamates on fiddle, and Martyn Wylde on bass guitar with supporting vocals.
For more information about Celtic Mayhem, check out their website at: www.celticmayhem.net
For more information about the Florida Renaissance Festival, see:
www.ren-fest.com
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“The Wild Colonial Boy” is a traditional song from the mid-nineteenth century, with two primary versions (Irish and Australian) and numerous variants of each.
The original version was about Jack Donahue, an Irish rebel who became a convict, then a bushranger, who was eventually shot down by police. This version was outlawed as seditious so the name changed.
The Australian version is quite different from the Irish version that is more commonly heard in the US and Europe. It is about a boy named Jack Doolan, born in Castlemaine. The poem then continues on to tell of his exploits without mentioning his moving to Australia, which implies that the Castlemaine in question is that in Victoria.
The exploits of the legendary Wild Colonial Boy is thought to be something of a composite of historical bushrangers of the era, based primarily on “Bold Jack Donahue”, with snippets of other infamous bushrangers such as Ned Kelly and others. However, there was a historical figure of a juvenile bushranger name Jack Doolan that may have also been a basis for the Australian version of the song. Historical Scholar Allen Mawer has written extensively on the colonial and maritime history of Australia. His pamphlet on “The Life and Legend of Jack Doolan, the Wild Colonial Boy” was published by Mulini Press, Canberra, in March 2004. More historical information about both the famous song, legend of the “Wild Colonial Boy”, and the history of Australian bushrangers can be found at the Australian National Centre for Education at:
http://hyperhistory.org/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=674&op=page
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Lyrics for a common variant of the Australian version of
“The Wild Colonial Boy”
There was a wild Colonial Boy,
Jack Doolan was his name,
Of poor but honest parents,
He was born in Castlemaine.
He was his father’s only hope
His mother’s pride and joy,
And dearly did his parents love
The Wild Colonial Boy.
At the age of sixteen years
He left his native home,
And to Australia’s sunny shores
A bushranger did roam.
They put him in the iron gang
In the government employ,
But never an iron on earth could hold
The Wild Colonial Boy
(CHORUS)
So come away me hearties
We’ll roam the mountains high,
Together we will plunder
And together we will die.
We’ll scour along the valleys
And we’ll gallop or’er the plains,
And scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down by iron chains.
In sixty-one this daring youth
Commenced his wild career,
With a heart that knew no danger
And no foreman did he fear.
He stuck up the Beechworth mail coach
And robbed Judge MacEvoy
Who, trembling cold, gave up his gold
To the Wild Colonial Boy
He bade the Judge good morning
And he told him to beware,
That he’d never rob a needy man
Or one who acted square,
But a Judge who’d robed a mother
Of her one and only joy
Sure, he must be a worse outlaw than
The Wild Colonial Boy
(CHORUS)
So come away me hearties
We’ll roam the mountains high,
Together we will plunder
And together we will die.
We’ll scour along the valleys
And we’ll gallop or’er the plains,
And scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down by iron chains.
One day as Jack was riding
The mountainside along,
A- listening to the little birds
Their happy laughing song.
Three mounted troopers came along,
Kelly, Davis and Fitzroy
With a warrant for the capture of
The Wild Colonial Boy.
‘Surrender now! Jack Doolan,
For you see it’s three to one;
Surrender in the Queen’s own name,
You are a highwayman.’
Jack drew his pistol from his belt
And waved it like a toy,
‘I’ll fight, but not surrender,’ cried
The Wild Colonial Boy.
He fired at trooper Kelly
And brought him to the ground,
And in return from Davis,
Received a mortal wound,
All shattered through the jaws he lay
Still firing at Fitzroy,
And that’s the way they captured him,
The Wild Colonial Boy.
(CHORUS)
So come away me hearties
We’ll roam the mountains high,
Together we will plunder
And together we will die.
We’ll scour along the valleys
And we’ll gallop or’er the plains,
And scorn to live in slavery,
Bound down by iron chains.