US Presidential candidate John McCain has revealed his new campaign slogan - the famous battle cry of the Siege of Derry - "No Surrender!" One American commentator thinks this will alienate the Irish American vote, but maybe it will mobilise the Scotch-Irish vote in a similar way to Senator James Webb's 2006 election on the back of his 2004 book "Born Fighting - How the Scots Irish Shaped America". Like Webb, McCain is of Ulster-Scots descent. And then of course there was the famous McCain versus Gerry Adams incident on St Patrick's Day 2005.
I doubt very much that 99.9% of Americans will automatically link "No Surrender" with Ulster, or Ulster-Scots, anyway - the awareness is nowhere near high enough for it to register. So this is probably a storm in a teacup. But if the choice of slogan creates a media-driven furore in the USA, that's great! Anything that positively raises the popular awareness of Ulster-Scots identity and history to the US public is in my view a good thing.
Anyway, to the (more) important stuff - here's the musical notation for an old American hymn of the same name. (click to enlarge). 
Thursday, April 17, 2008
No Surrender!
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4 comments:
Hi Mark,
Apparently there is an old variety of apple called "No Surrenders" - I think my in laws had them on their farm in County Fermanagh. At least, that's where I heard about them. Then there are the "British Queens" spuds.
Here: My gastric juices are starting to bubble again :0)
Fair fa' ye
Apples and spuds? Should there not be a variety of "No Surrender" oranges?! ;-)
Brother Mark,
This post has moved me politically. I have been disgusted with John McCain for many reasons. But anyone who will take the IRA to task has gained many political points with me. Thank you.
John Killian
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