| Author | Topic: Add: The Boys of Kilkenny | |
| dmcg | Posted - 05 Jun 05 - 04:36 pm | |
Fare you well to old Ireland since I must leave the shore. And perhaps never see that little island no more. Leaving brothers and sisters and mother to mourn. And all for the sake of their dear darling son. Oh there is one thing that do grieve my heart sore. That's to go and leave that charming pretty girl I adore. But there is one the more that still runs in my mind, That's to think I should leave Kilkenny behind. Kilkenny is a fine place it lies in the West, And the more I think on it - it lies in my breast, But now I am in London so far from my home, In Kilkenny I've a true love but here I have none. Source: Singing Together, Summer 1977, BBC Publications | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 05 Jun 05 - 08:35 pm | |
Roud 1451. Widely published in songsters and on broadsides. I've seen it attributed to Thomas Moore, but that doesn't seem particularly likely. It contains elements found in a wide range of songs throughout Britain and Ireland, such as Bonny Udney, Bonny Portmore, Yarmouth is a Pretty Town and, indeed, The Streams of Lovely Nancy; whether there is any real relationship between all or some of these songs is an open question. An early example is Shrowsbury for me in the Pepys collection. This particular example isn't (at least, directly) from Ireland; it was found by the Hammond Brothers in Dorset. Frank Purslow published a collated set in Marrowbones, 10; the tune seems to have come from Mathew Hunt (Sherbourne Almshouses, July 1906), with words from Mr T Hunt (Sherbourne Workhouse, September 1905) and Jim Burrows (Sherbourne Gravel Pits, July 1906), but the notes are sketchy and I don't know which bits came from whom. Mr Hunt actually began the song "Fare you well to old England since I must leave the shore" - I know that much anyway. I suppose the BBC must have used the Purslow set, with one or two words changed (it's "Ireland" in Marrowbones, incidentally) and two verses omitted; it's definitely the Hammond tune, though transposed down two steps. | ||