"The Orange and the Green" or "The Biggest Mix-Up" is a humorous

Irish folk Irish traditional music (also known as Irish trad, Irish folk music, and other variants) is a genre of folk music that developed in Ireland. In ''A History of Irish Music'' (1905), W. H. Grattan Flood wrote that, in Gaelic Ireland, there we ...

song about a man whose father was a

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

("Orange") and whose mother was a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

("Green"). It describes the man's trials as the product of religious intermarriage and how "mixed up" he became as a result of such an upbringing. This song was written by Anthony Murphy of

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, and has been recorded by bands such as

The Irish Rovers The Irish Rovers is a group of Irish musicians that originated in Toronto, Canada. Formed in 1963'Irish Rovers are Digging out those old Folk songs', By Ballymena Weekly Editor, Ballymena Weekly Telegraph, N. Ireland – 20 August 1964 and na ...

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 ...

Paddy Reilly Patrick "Paddy" Reilly (born 18 October 1939) is an Irish folk singer and guitarist. Born in Rathcoole, County Dublin, he is one of Ireland's most famous balladeers and is best known for his renditions of "The Fields of Athenry", "Rose of Allen ...

, the

Brobdingnagian Bards The Brobdingnagian Bards are a Celtic music group from Austin, Texas, United States. History Marc Gunn, formerly of Austin Texas' alternative rock bands Skander and Breastfed, released a solo album (''Geography'') featuring himself on autoharp a ...

Marc Gunn Marc Andrew Gunn (born March 17, 1972) is an American musician and podcaster. Gunn rose to prominence as the autoharp-playing half of the Brobdingnagian Bards. He and partner Andrew McKee developed a following with weekly performances on the ...

, and The Spinners and among others. It is sung to the same tune as "

The Wearing of the Green "The Wearing of the Green" is an Irish street ballad lamenting the repression of supporters of the Irish Rebellion of 1798. It is to an old Irish air, and many versions of the lyric exist, the best-known being by Dion Boucicault. The song proclai ...

", which is also used in " The Rising of the Moon", another Irish ballad, and " The Army of the Free”, an American song.

History

Liverpool, home to a great many Irish immigrants, has a large number of Catholics. On the other hand, the Protestant

Orange Order The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants, particularly those of Ulster Scots heritage. It also ...

is also very strong. The Orange Lodge marches every year in July, with bands of fifes, drums and

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, No ...

, to celebrate the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic

King James II James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

, on 12 July 1690.

History

See also