"Admiral William Brown" is a song written and first performed by the

Wolfe Tones The Wolfe Tones are an Irish rebel music band that incorporate Irish traditional music in their songs. Formed in 1963, they take their name from Theobald Wolfe Tone, one of the leaders of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, with the double meaning of ...

in 1982, the year of the

Falklands War The Falklands War ( es, link=no, Guerra de las Malvinas) was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial de ...

between Argentina and the United Kingdom. The song recounts the biography of Irish-Argentine admiral William Brown (1777–1857), and contains denunciations of

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their relig ...

and the United Kingdom. It was included in the group's 1983 album, ''

A Sense of Freedom ''A Sense of Freedom'' is a 1981 Scottish crime film directed by John Mackenzie for Scottish Television. The film stars David Hayman and featured Jake D'Arcy, Sean Scanlan, Hector Nicol, Alex Norton and Fulton Mackay. It is based on the auto ...

''. The song was popular in Ireland, reaching number four in the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are bas ...

. In the United States, Admiral William Brown reached the top spot on

WROL WROL is a radio station in the Boston, Massachusetts radio market. The station is owned by Salem Media Group and is located on 950 kHz on the AM dial. Most of WROL's programming is religious including local ministers as well as national radio ...

's "Irish Hit Parade". While the song was reportedly not released in the UK, according to the group, the controversial lyrics caused all of the Wolfe Tones's music to be banned on radio in the UK from 1983.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1982 songs