The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #164384   Message #3932996
Posted By: Jim Carroll
24-Jun-18 - 08:10 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Well below the Valley (Christy Moore
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Well below the Valley (Christy Moore
This is a list (full, I think) of the recordings of John Reilly made by Tom Munnelly
D K Wilgus also recorded him, but I don't think they included anything Tom hadn't recorded

One song, 'Old Caravee, was of particular interest to us.
John sings about it being about 'Bold William Delaney' and Julia
We recorded the same song from several Travellers all using a name different from John's but the same as each other - each time we got it the singer asked us not to "tell anybody I gave it to you"
It concerns a 'made match' - a Traveller marriage done through a matchmaker; the reason for the caution was that the couple at the time were still very much alive and still on the road - Mary Delaney told us, laughing, "He's me first cousin; if he knew I'd given it to you he'd murder me!"
Kerry Traveller Mikeen McCarthy sang some of it and said he was there when the song was made, "by four of the lads sitting on the bank at the side of the road while the wedding was going on inside the church"
The song presicts how the wedding would progress:

"Oh the fist year we were wed it was lovely.
And the second we couldn't agree
And the third one she put on the trousers
And then came the boss over me"

(Made while the wedding was taking place)

The song is a fine example of Travellers' song-making skills and also an example of a group of people composing a song
We've often wondered if John changed the name in deference to the Travelling couple
Jim Carroll

John Reilly. Traveller, Boyle, Co Roscommon. 22.2.69. (died that year)
Woman of Our Town (Marrow Bones)
Well Below The Valley (Child 21)
Rosin Box (The Tinker)

John Reilly., Irish traveller recorded by Tom Munnelly.
Side one.
The Bonny Green Tree.                                        Rec in Boyle. 1967.
The Well Below The Valley. (Child 21).        
The Raggle Taggle Gypsies.
Lord Baker. (Lord Baternan).        
The Rozzin Box.
A Woman Of’ Our Town. (Marrowbones).        
The Breeze (Braes) Of Strawblane,
Barbara Allen.        
Side two.
What Put The Blood.
Here’s Adieu To All True Lovers.
Once There Lived A Captain.
Peter Heaney.        
Old Caravee
Conversation.
The Steward In The Laurel Tree,                                Rec in 1969, 1 month before his death.
The Lake Of Coolfin,

John Reilly                                                 John Reilly (traveller) Roscommon, 1967
Rosin Box (Jolly Tinker)      
Raggle Taggle Gypsies 0
Dark Eyed Gypsy 0
The Mountain Stream
What Put The Blood (Edward)      
Woman of Our Town (Marrowbones)
Peter Heaney
Side two
Mary, The Pride of Cloonkeen
Slieve Galtee Mountain
Johnson's Motor Car
Claddogh Banks
Seven Nights Drunk
Paddy McNulty (Old Caravee)
The Bold Sea Captain
Here's Adieu To All True Lovers