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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
GUEST,SteveT Lyr Req: Old Dunn's Dunn (Dunne Song) (21) RE: Lyr Req: Old Dunn's Dunn (Dunne Song) 12 Aug 18


Here’s the information from the other thread as provided by Frank Jeal who’s sadly no longer with us to answer any further questions. I believe Tommy Sands may have got it from Brian Mullen who learned it from Frank.

“OK, Here's the story of "Mr Dunne" as I know it!    The song was originally collected as a pub song in Dorset by Richard Valentine , probably from the Dorchester area where he lived. Richard came up to Oxford in about 1959 . He was a fine folk singer and he and I occasionally sang duets at the Heritage club. Richard was loosely attached to the Oxford Uni. Morris Men , of which I was a member , and on a morris tour he wrote out the words of Mr Dunn on the back of an envelope. After the tour I went to learn the words , but found that the envelope had got damp and one line was illegible , so I rewrote that one line. That was significant, as to me that line is instantly recognisable , and acts like a "radioactive marker". I can immediately tell if the version in question has been 'through my hands'. I should say that all the versions I have seen in recent years including the ones on this thread, have my line in it ! When I went to Bangor in 1962 I took the song with me , and many of my friends in the Bangor morris may have learnt it. I then moved to Dublin where I also sang it around the pubs etc. One Irishman who had been in Bangor , and learnt the song there was Brian Mullen., from Derry. He admitted to me that he had passed it on to the Sands family, when I rang him , having heard their recording of it on Radio Eirinn.
So , the song was originally collected in England. I believe it was used in Dorset as a 'challenge' song, - if you could sing it you were still sober enough to be served !.
In recent years I was contacted by a genuine Mr Dunne who was writing a history of the (Irish) Dunne family, He had heard Cathal MacConnell sing it , and Cathal suggested he contact me for the words. So the words have now made it into a formal history of the Dunne family!!
What really matters though is that the song caught on, travelled widely and given lots of people a good laugh !!”


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