The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #75335 Message #3279148
Posted By: Jim Dixon
23-Dec-11 - 07:57 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Man from the Mountains/Sive
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Man from the Mountains/Sive
These 6 lines are sung twice in the play Sive by John B. Keane (Cork: Mercier Press, 1959), pages 48 and 51:
May the snails devour his corpse,
And the rain do harm worse;
May the devil sweep the hairy creature soon;
He's as greedy as a sow;
And the crow behind the plough;
That black man from the mountain, Seánín Rua!
--but I can't find anything longer, and I can't find any source older than the play. Maybe Keane made it up?