Is the chosen English rugby anthem appropriate do you think?

[NothingWrong]

To me, it's an emotional song, about God really (coming for to carry me home). England has reduced it to bringing home a prize. Apart from cultural appropriation, is it appropriate for England to use a sort of Gospel song sung by black slaves as their rugby anthem?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_Low,_Sweet_Chariot

Here's a link to its origins btw.

Personally I think it's arrogant of them to use this song in the way they do. I'm not looking for a fight! Rugby fans are generally respectful, so I'm just wondering A whether English fans know the origins of the song and B whether anyone else feels it's a little 'off'?

Swing Low is a crowd chant

The anthem for England is God Save Tye Queen, so has everything to do with the thread, going by the title
Why not google 'English rugby anthem' and see what the results are.

Hint: it's not GSTQ.

anthem
/ˈanθəm/
Learn to pronounce
noun
1.
a rousing or uplifting song identified with a particular group, body, or cause.
"the song became the anthem for hippy activists"

I think some of you may be confusing National anthem with rugby anthem.

My thread title mentions 'English rugby anthem'. It does not mention 'national anthem'.

I'm looking forward to the game Portia. Apart from against the All Blacks, Ireland v England is usually the most nerve wracking for me.

interesting thread...

but no mention of the fact Fields of Athenry is about a lad who is being deported to Australia for stealing corn...

Flower of Scotland is about the Scots uprising against the English...

And Wales sing about their brave warriors who shed their blood...

NothingWrong

//Isn't one of the lines about crushing us rebellious Scots//

I don't think Swing Low Sweet Chariot makes any mention of Scots.........

It’s a reference to God Save the Queen which did at one point (~300 yrs ago) have a verse that did

I agree with you, I like the song (although not when it swirls around Murrayfield ) but it has always seemed a very strange choice to me. But they’re not going to give it up 🤷‍♀️

Are you just
Drunk
Or
On a high from winning?

Just bash the English thread to make you’re self feel better.

Lol, the Scots weren't crushed by England, the Scottish government sold the country to England because they sunk all the money into the Darien Project and it failed.

Looking at lyrics, those of Athenry are hardly a celebration, in that the bloke has completely fucked his wife and kid over by getting caught stealing - if the kid was likely to starve to death without his intervention (as millions did), he's signed their death warrant by getting transported to Botany Bay, rather than getting all of them on a ship to the Americas. And he tells his Missus she'll just have to do it all alone 'with dignity'.

I think it's a great song, though.

but no mention of the fact Fields of Athenry is about a lad who is being deported to Australia for stealing corn...

Ye - from Trevellian - one of the cruellest English landlords in Irish history. We didn't have a famine, we were taxed into oblivion.

Lyrics here for you

The Fields of Athenry
The Dubliners
By a lonely prison wall,
I heard a young girl calling
Michael they have taken you away,
For you stole Trevelyan's corn
So the young might see the morn,
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay
()
Low lie, The Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing,
It's so lonely round the Fields of Athenry
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young man calling
'Nothing matters Mary, when you're free'
Against the famine and the crown,
I rebelled, they cut me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity
(Chrous)
Low lie, The Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing
We had dreams and songs to sing,
It's so lonely round the Fields of Athenry
By a lonely…

I hope we smash the shit out of you in the six nations. HTH

Against the famine and the crown,
I rebelled, they cut me down

I think this is why we sing it lol

Why would a chariot be swinging at all, low or otherwise?
Unless it was suspended from a tree or something.

that the bloke has completely fucked his wife and kid over by getting caught stealing

You missed the next line which is........

so the young might see the morn

I.e. so that our children don't die in the night from starvation.

Moonmelodies I think in biblical writings, we go home to God in a chariot or something - could be wrong.

I agree OP it's always nerve wrecking when Ireland play England, I remember years ago when I was a teen I went to Twickenham with my Dad and that was when ROG and BOD were playing for Ireland I just couldn't look I was so excited and I think we got thrashed but hey as ever no sour grapes as on that occasion the best team were outstanding

I've never thought about it but you are right. England has such a bad shameful history of colonialism and slavery, it is wrong to take a slave song and use it for sports fun.

I was disgusted when they started replacing ROG with Sexton for kicking. I was like 'he'll never be nearly as good - what are they doing'. Now look at him! He's my favourite player in the whole wide world. Such a humble man too. Married with 2 children and very very modest.

So.... you think the English should sing about being invaded by the Normans? Or fleeing to Brittany from the Saxons? Or fighting the Nazis WW2?

I don't think singing about WW2 would go down much better than Swing Low.

It was played at my fathers funeral. It meant so much to him.
Coming for to carry him home.

But yes I’m a fucking racist. And no one other than the English ever did awful things in the colonial era. 👍

OP, tried to disguise your anti English thread as something about rugby and/or music? Didn't work.

I think the English could come up with something suitably irritating for the rest of us, yet rousing for English fans!

England has such a bad shameful history of colonialism and slavery
Do you mean Britain and most of Europe and parts of Africa or just English bashing again?

@nothingwrong. Did you not read the next bit I wrote about the kid starving to death (and being pretty much guaranteed to without its father being in the picture anymore)? I know the fekking words - I've performed it often enough and could give you the chords (including the passing ones in various keys) if you needed/wanted to learn to play it as well as yell along in the pub, rather than a simple copy and paste from the internet to 'prove' I know the words.

But hey, go on the attack by assuming nobody knows the words or understands the historical context of a 1970s song.

Davros - it's sporting banter mixed with a little bewilderment.

Take offence though. You're entitled to take offence at any opportunity.