"The Men of the West" is a song from the Irish Rebellion of 1798 which was an uprising against British rule in Ireland. The United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group, were the main organizing force behind the rebellion, led by Presbyterians angry at being shut out of power by the Anglican establishment and joined by Catholics, who made up the majority of the population. Killala, in county Mayo in the northwest was the site of the first battle of the French force of General Humbert in the 1798 Rebellion. On August 22nd, 1798, Humbert landed at nearby Kilcummin Harbor with 1,109 troops with the objective of supporting the United Irishmen. The force quickly seized the town. Humbert advanced to Ballina, which he captured with little trouble. The force then moved further and on August 27th it won a battle in Castlebar against larger force commanded by General Lake. The town was also the site of the last land battle of the rebellion on September 23rd, 1798 when the British army defeated a rebel Irish force in Killala. The melody is "Rosin the Beau" I learned this early in my college career when we formed the Ivyside Folklore Society and one of our faculty advisors was John McGreevy. He had a good repertoire of Irish rebellion songs and this was one of them. It was printed in Galvin's Irish Songs of Resistance. It was recorded by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. Songs from Irish uprisings and rebellion in this collection are: "Bold Fenian Men" "Boolavogue" "The Boyne Water" "The Boys of Kilmichael" "Croppies Lie Down" "The Croppy Boy" "The Foggy Dew" "Kelly the Boy from Killane" "Kevin Barry" "The Old Orange Flute" "The Protestant Boys" "The Rising of the Moon" "The Wearing of the Green" "The Wind That Shakes the Barley"