Tramp, tramp, tramp

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Root's Civil War lyrics are sung by a POW in a Confederate prison who looks forward hopefully to the day when Union soldiers will arrive to liberate him and his comrades. The song was hugely popular, and Confederates sang their own version about Lee's army crossing the Potomac to liberate their boys from a Union camp. Irish people learned the song in the 1860s because so many of their kinsmen had fought in the American Civil War––about 150,000 for the Union and 20-40,000 for the Confederacy. The medical students echo the first line of the refrain:

     In the prison cell I sit, thinking Mother, dear, of you,
     And our bright and happy home so far away,
     And the tears they fill my eyes 'spite of all that I can do,
     Tho' I try to cheer my comrades and be gay.

     (Chorus)
     Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! The boys are marching,
     Cheer up comrades they will come,
     And beneath the starry flag we shall breathe the air again,
     Of the free land in our own beloved home.

      In the battle front we stood, when their fiercest charge they made,
      And they swept us off a hundred men or more,
      But before we reached their lines, they were beaten back dismayed,
      And we heard the cry of vict'ry o'er and o'er.

      (Chorus)

      So within the prison cell we are waiting for the day
      That shall come to open wide the iron door.
      And the hollow eye grows bright, and the poor heart almost gay,
      As we think of seeing home and friends once more.

      (Chorus)

The alteration of "marching" to "parching" plays on the alcoholic thirst (as in the expression "I'm parched") that is motivating the march down Holles Street. The alteration of Beatitudes to "atitudes" plays on a military meaning of "attitudes." Gifford notes that as a command it means 'Correct your postures and alignments'." Slote and his collaborators cite the OED: "posture, pose."

This song about rescuing prisoners soon acquired special significance for the Irish. After the failure of the Fenian rebellion, in September 1867 a group of nearly thirty Fenians attacked a police van taking two of their captured comrades to jail in Manchester. A guard died when a bullet fired at the lock on the van's door ricocheted, and in October five men, none of whom had fired the shot, were put on trial for murder. One of the five, Edward O'Meagher Condon, concluded his speech from the dock with the words, "God save Ireland!" and sympathetic watchers in the courtroom took up the chant. All five men were convicted on flimsy evidence and sentenced to death. Although one sentence was overturned on appeal, and Condon's was commuted, three of the men were hanged in November. They became known as the Manchester Martyrs, and in December, one day before their funeral, Timothy Daniel Sullivan published lyrics called "God Save Ireland," set to George Root's well-known tune. The medical students in Oxen are heard singing fragments of this song's chorus as well:

     High upon the gallows tree swung the noble-hearted three.
     By the vengeful tyrant stricken in their bloom;
     But they met him face to face, with the courage of their race,
     And they went with souls undaunted to their doom.

     (Chorus)
     "God save Ireland!" said the heroes;
     "God save Ireland" said they all.
     Whether on the scaffold high
     Or the battlefield we die,
     Oh, what matter when for Ireland dear we fall!

     Girt around with cruel foes, still their courage proudly rose,
     For they thought of hearts that loved them far and near;
     Of the millions true and brave o'er the ocean's swelling wave,
     And the friends in holy Ireland ever dear.

     (Chorus)

     Climbed they up the rugged stair, rang their voices out in prayer,
     Then with England's fatal cord around them cast,
     Close beside the gallows tree kissed like brothers lovingly,
     True to home and faith and freedom to the last.

     (Chorus)

     Never till the latest day shall the memory pass away,
     Of the gallant lives thus given for our land;
     But on the cause must go, amidst joy and weal and woe,
     Till we make our Isle a nation free and grand.

     (Chorus)

This version of the song inspired Irish nationalists through the rest of the 19th century and right up to independence. The Home Rule movement adopted it as their anthem, as did some football clubs. John McCormack made a best-selling recording of the song in 1906. Rebels sang it during the Easter Rising of 1916. Clearly the medical students (one, some, or all) have both versions lodged in memory. Their voicing of the first line of the American chorus ("Tramp, tramp, tramp"), followed seconds later by the second line of the Irish chorus ("Whether on the scaffold high"), and then a phrase from the fourth line ("When for Irelandear"), suggests that they are singing the well-remembered tune and plugging in whichever version's lyrics come to mind.