The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157044   Message #3704934
Posted By: Jim Carroll
28-Apr-15 - 03:06 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Barbara Allen
Subject: RE: Origins: Barbara Allen
Are there any lists of Irish versions?
Not as far as I know, but as in Britain and the US, it it probably the most popular Anglo Irish Ballad to be found here.
Jean Richie remarked back in the 50s that, if you were looking for traditional songs in ant area, you only had to ask did anybody know Barbara Allen, and the songs came rolling in.
Tom Lenihan's version, with it's particularly fine tune, is to be found here on the Clare County Library website
Carroll Mackenzie Collection
We must have got around half a dozen versions from Travellers - all similar in structure.
In all, fifty one Child ballads were still being sung by source singers in Ireland up to the 1980s
Jim Carroll