The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #16707   Message #4113630
Posted By: MartinNail
17-Jul-21 - 01:39 PM
Thread Name: Origins of Carrickfergus
Subject: RE: Help: Origins of Carrickfergus
Many years ago (16th January 2000), John Moulden posted the English stanzas of "The young sick lover" as printed by Haly of Cork, and referred to "the one printed by Troy of Limerick - differences are probable and will be revealing."

The good news is that the Troy printing is now online on the TCD website: https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/v405sb51b. Other sources suggest that Troy was based in Waterford not Limerick. TCD gives Troy's dates of activity as 1847-1860, so that is some years later than the 1830 date for the Haly printing.

The Troy text has the same overall macaronic structure as the Haly one, but there are many differences (especially in the "phonetic Irish" stanzas). This suggests that one is not copy of the other, and that either both are based on some older oral (or written?) version, or that Troy is based on an oral recollection of Haly.

The first two lines of the second stanza are:

I wish I had you in Carrick, fergus,
Ne faud O naut ud, Bolla quiene,

Not a Ballygrand in sight, and I love the 'Carrick, fergus' -- it sounds like a vocative.