And the Rising Moon Wears Green.

I have been immersing myself in the old Irish ballad, "The Wearing of the Green" and the history behind it.  Its quite powerful lyrics were put to the fiery the music which I suspect most people are familiar with.

Without getting too involved in the history, the song recounts or perhaps bemoans the persecution of the Irish rebels (The Society of United Irishmen) at the hands of the English during the 1798 Irish Rebellion.  Remembering the successful American Revolution and the more recent, more radical French Revolution, the Irish, Protestant and Catholics together, fought a bitter but unsuccessful series of uncoordinated uprisings that resulted in much bloodshed.  The color green and shamrocks were the identifying elements used by the rebels.  Even before the rebellion, the leaders had mostly been rounded up and rather than wait around for the same fate, the wearers of the green proceeded with the uprisings haphazardly. 
This isn't a sad song, but one of anger and perhaps regret.

For they're hanging men and women there for wearing of the green.

I always found it strange that another song about the same rebellion, "The Rising of the Moon," uses the exact same music. 

"The Rising of the Moon" is about a sad and bitter loss as well as desperation. The rebels weren't an organized militia, but farmers and common workers for the most part. They had no money for muskets or ammunition nor the training to use them. They armed themselves with readily made pikes -- good weapons, but ineffective against a trained and experienced enemy with their bayonetted muskets. 

For the pikes must be together at the rising of the moon.

Knowing this, they still fought.   It might have been foolhardy bravery or just sheer desperation but there's something glorious in the notion, even considering the Irish penchant for the dramatic  The tune used by "The Wearing of the Green" is a rousing one and to me unsuitable to sadness that permeates " The Rising of the Moon."   Because of that, unless that tempo is slowed way down, I much prefer the entirely different take given by Judy Collins and even more so by Peter, Paul and Mary:

Their versions were derived from that of Richard Dyer-Bennet, recorded originally in 1951 on an album entitled simply, "Folk Songs." (Billboard mentions this album and lists all the tracts in July 14, 1951. p.62)

Interesting enough, "The Wearing of the Green" is an older song although it seems to have evolved for earlier poems before setting into its more-or-less present form in the mid 19th century and predated "The Rising of the Moon" as becomes obvious from this clipping out of "The Rising of the Moon, and Other Ballads, Etc." by John Keegan Casey who therein published his song in 1869:

Note that the air of "Wearing of the Green" was already well known and that "The Rising of the Moon" sought to appropriate it. 
Even before Casey published his "At the Rising of the Moon" in 1869 to the air of "Wearing of the Green," the tune and lyrics were highjacked (in 1865) by another failed rebellion, that of the Confederate States of America.  

[You may have noticed with a careful read that the song was published by A. E. Blackmar.   This was indeed Armand Edward Blackmar of the well known Blackmar (-Deimer) Gambit.]

Wow, and tied it back into chess at the very end.

I guess history is interesting like that. People in the past were as varied and multidimensional as we are today, so there's no single story, but a bunch of interwoven events, people and their interests.

Almost all the chess players back then were still amateurs with day jobs. 

St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. @Erik must have driven the Irish out of chess.com.

This is a lonely place.  
But not as lonely as Ireland without shamrocks. 

It seems you really believed your advice which went something like "if you don't like the low quality topics /  posts, then make some good ones yourself"

As a rebuttal to that, and as an answer to why your quality topic has received little attention, I'll say you have to know your audience.

I know my audience. I just can't  find them.

Oh, and I'm 46. 

Maybe I should have said "the audience" instead of "your audience."

I'm the Don Quiote of chess.com 

Have you ever seen a copy of El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha?

Have you tried to read it? It's long and boring as hell. I never finished it.

My two cents.

I can't even spell it.

You should try copy and pasting it... which is what I did.

I did see the musical play, Man of La Mancha... (way) off Broadway, of course.

Thank you for that interesting post! Like many Germans, I love Ireland and Irish music, though I have been to Ireland only twice yet (oh, yes, I'm, 63). 

And it's great how you always find how your subjects are chess related  

I must admit that I've been little here for quite a while.

I never knew Germans had a thing for Ireland.   I've never been there.. or much of anywhere for that matter, but a lot of the music I listen to originated there.  
Erin go brah!

I think it's indicative of folk music to use a popular tune with multiple songs. The USA national anthem borrowed a popular tune from back in the day. (Please forgive my mangling of your post.)

Sometimes I don't get on this site for two or more days. By then many interesting threads have been pushed to page three or more by a continuous barrage of inane threads. I may not ahve time to dig that far for the gems.

The German national anthem (the music was written by Joseph Haydn) is based on Croatian folk song btw.

I know a lot of songs that share melodies, e.g. "What Child is This?" / "Greensleeves."  But what I find odd is that these are the only two songs I found about the Irish rebellion and they happen to share the same melody (even  though the melody doesn't suit both of them).  Maybe before it had a potato famine, Ireland had a musical score famine?