The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #83746   Message #3874530
Posted By: GUEST,Obscure Ed
31-Aug-17 - 02:19 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Bantry Girl's Lament
Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
I'm visiting this old page after hearing Denny Bartley's fantastic version, with Chris Sherburn on concertina. A couple of comments:

The OED says that "peeler" originally referred to the Irish constabulary; the first cited use was in 1816. So the mention of peelers does not really help us with dating.

An early appearance of the song is in the Dublin University Magazine, Dec. 1863 (archive.org). The song text (essentially the same as the one quoted above) has a few helpful footnotes: "bawnoge" is defined as "village green"; "pathriarchs" [sic] as "a substitute for _patriots_ by Johnny's loving but unlearned admirers"; "Moneyhore" as "a village between Enniscorthy and Castleboro', with the privilege of fairs". The article purports to be a description of "Irish Harvest Homes and their Minstrelsy Fifty Years Since". The same article appeared in 1867 as a chapter in Patrick Kennedy's "The Banks of the Boro: A Chronicle in the County of Wexford".