Damo wrote it. Here's what he said about it: "Anyway let me change tack here and tell you about the song Sam Jenkins. You may be praying for the return of vague after I tell you about this. Seeing as so many British soldiers came to my land down through the many centuries of colonialism I thought I’d write a song from the perspective and narrative of one of them, a good one at that (soldier I mean, not song, I’ll let youz decide that). Sam Jenkins was a poor young Englishman from Staffordshire who like so many of his countrymen joined the army to put food in his belly. In the mid 18 hundreds Britain was the richest land on earth due to it’s many brutalised colonies and its long involvement in the slave trade (which it had finally denounced and ceased by this time thanks to William Wilberforce and other English empaths like him). So why were Britain’s ordinary people all hungry dirty and poor in the richest country on earth? So they’d be forced to join the army and defend the colonies, basically to allow the ruling classes to maintain the lavish luxurious lifestyles they’d become accustomed to. Sam was sent to Ireland as part of a food removal regiment. These regiments were stationed all over Ireland, guarding the rivers of food that was leaving Ireland all through this terrible period. Cattle, sheep, pigs, grain, wheat, barley, peas beans, rabbits and an array of different types of food was being shipped to England, as millions of Irish starved. Ireland at this time and for many centuries was known as the garden of England. That’s why it angers me that this period in Ireland from 1845 to 1850 is referred to by everyone and in Irish history books as ‘the famine’. The word famine means extreme scarcity of food, yet in one year alone, 1847,over 4000 ships brimming with Irish food left Ireland for English ports. The same year, 400,000 Irish people died of starvation. So I’d implore people to stop using that phrase. Lets call it what it really was. Mary McAleese has referred to this period as the great starvation; I think that’s a more accurate name. Half the British Empires army was in Ireland at this time guarding the foods passage to the coast, (many Irishmen numbered among them), and the soldiers all had to be fed, this gives you an idea of the amount of food that was in the land during this time. This is what Sam Jenkins was doing in Ireland. Like many soldiers from a poor background, he felt more affinity with the poor Irish than he did with the ruling class English (who tried to brainwash the soldiers into thinking that the Irish were white apes, sub human), and he suffered because of this."
amazing Damo!!!
Thanks for your love and support.. God bless you
Great new tune, thanks for the video upload!
Brilliant.
God bless you Damo! Thanks for posting, any idea who wrote this one?
Damo wrote it. Here's what he said about it:
"Anyway let me change tack here and tell you about the song Sam Jenkins. You may be praying for the return of vague after I tell you about this. Seeing as so many British soldiers came to my land down through the many centuries of colonialism I thought I’d write a song from the perspective and narrative of one of them, a good one at that (soldier I mean, not song, I’ll let youz decide that). Sam Jenkins was a poor young Englishman from Staffordshire who like so many of his countrymen joined the army to put food in his belly. In the mid 18 hundreds Britain was the richest land on earth due to it’s many brutalised colonies and its long involvement in the slave trade (which it had finally denounced and ceased by this time thanks to William Wilberforce and other English empaths like him). So why were Britain’s ordinary people all hungry dirty and poor in the richest country on earth? So they’d be forced to join the army and defend the colonies, basically to allow the ruling classes to maintain the lavish luxurious lifestyles they’d become accustomed to.
Sam was sent to Ireland as part of a food removal regiment. These regiments were stationed all over Ireland, guarding the rivers of food that was leaving Ireland all through this terrible period. Cattle, sheep, pigs, grain, wheat, barley, peas beans, rabbits and an array of different types of food was being shipped to England, as millions of Irish starved. Ireland at this time and for many centuries was known as the garden of England. That’s why it angers me that this period in Ireland from 1845 to 1850 is referred to by everyone and in Irish history books as ‘the famine’. The word famine means extreme scarcity of food, yet in one year alone, 1847,over 4000 ships brimming with Irish food left Ireland for English ports. The same year, 400,000 Irish people died of starvation. So I’d implore people to stop using that phrase. Lets call it what it really was. Mary McAleese has referred to this period as the great starvation; I think that’s a more accurate name. Half the British Empires army was in Ireland at this time guarding the foods passage to the coast, (many Irishmen numbered among them), and the soldiers all had to be fed, this gives you an idea of the amount of food that was in the land during this time. This is what Sam Jenkins was doing in Ireland. Like many soldiers from a poor background, he felt more affinity with the poor Irish than he did with the ruling class English (who tried to brainwash the soldiers into thinking that the Irish were white apes, sub human), and he suffered because of this."
Stephen Doyne Apparently Churchill did a similar thing in India...
Dawn Ross - Churchill turned rice fields over to rope production and starved approx 3 million
Damo , tell me the tuning please, I've been doing it in DADGAD , but i think your G string in in something else
BEIR BUA
Its a healing giant of a song just like the man himself.