DTStudy: Spancil Hill

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: JedMarum
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 09:50 AM

I suspect it is a local expression that we just wouldn't be able to know about it - or it is one of those errors that has been carried on for generations.

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: Jeri
Date: 01 Aug 04 - 11:53 AM

Why don't you think a hunt makes sense?

To me it's the most logical explanation:
Hunts are/were frequently held on Sundays in Ireland.
You have a horse fair starting the next day, so there are even more horses around than usual.
The 'sport and kill' bit is in the version supposedly handed down from the original. I think it's more likely that there was simply a hunt than the lyrics of this song, which had originally been written down, were screwed up.

In any case, I hope someone who isn't just guessing (although I'm about 95% sure I'm right), will comment.

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST,John F
Date: 12 Jun 06 - 06:49 AM

Robbie still going strong. Singers club every first Friday in Duggan's Bar, Spancil Hill. Later this year special weekend to celebrate Robbie's 80th birthday which occurs in December 2006. Be there please to honour the great man!

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST,Gus Garrigan
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 11:40 PM

Hello all
seems this thread has been inactive awhile, I'm just finding it now.
I first heard the song from Paddy Reilly (short version)in 1995. one drunken night when singing songs with the lads in the wee hours I suggested we sing Spancil Hill, my friend Pat knew it and we started to sing, and when we got to the second verse i told him he was singing it wrong. He corrected me and sang the rest. It turns out it was a hybrid of the two versions but closer to the original.
Still a favorite of mine but the only version close to the original I have heard if from Christy Moore.

What I would like to know is does any know of Martin Moilen?

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: Brakn
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 04:48 AM

This might help with dates. According to this Census Mary MacNamara was born 1865 and had still not married in 1901. This would knock things back a few years.

Patrick Quigley, the tailor, was born 1868.

John Considine, who could possibly be Michael Considine's nephew was born 1876. If the song was sent home to him when he was 6, Mary MacNamara would've been 17 then and the tailor Quigley 14. I reckon that the tailor Quigley mentioned in the song could be this tailor Quigley's father.

The 1901 Census of Clare - Spancelhill - Muckinish.

Considine Kate Hd RC Read-Write 47 Female Farmer Widow Co. Clare
Considine John Son RC Read-Write 25 Male Farmer's Son Not M'd Co. Clare
O'Connell James Brother RC Read-Write 43 Male Not M'd Co. Clare
-------------------------
MacNamara John Hd RC R&W 45 Male Farmer Not M'd Co. Clare English
MacNamara Mary Sis RC R&W 36 Fem Dom Serv Not M'd Co.Clare Irish-Eng
-------------------------
Quigley Mary Hd RC Read-Write 60 Female Housekeeper Widow Co. Clare
Quigley Patrick Son RC Read-Write 33 Male Tailor Not Married Co. Clare

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST
Date: 23 Aug 08 - 07:15 PM

Only stumbled on this fascinating thread now. As it happens I met an old Christian Brother last week who told me he was from Spancil Hill 4 miles from Ennis.His name is Bro. Colm McMahon, a lovely gentle soul if ever there was one.
We got talking about the song and he told me the exact story that has been told above about Michael Considine writing the words etc.He knew John Considine well and told me that he was often brought by the hand to mass in Clooney church by John. He also attributed the fame of the song to the singing of Robbie McMahon.
Curiously, I mentioned the characters named in the verses to Bro. Colm.He told me he knew many of them.When I mentioned Martin Moylan he said that he had never heard that verse before !!! but that he did know of a family of Moylans in the locality.He knew the tailor Quigley well-he lived in a very well kept thatched house at the cross. Behind Quigleys up a little boreen was a large house which was Considines.Bro.Colm is a really gentle man and now lives in the Brothers retirement home in Baldoyle in Dublin, having spent his life teaching.
Lastly, we had a good laugh recalling one of the verses of The Pecker Dunne's song "Sullivans John" where he sings "Theres a hairy ass fair in the Co. Clare in a place they call Spancil Hill. Where my brother James got a rap of a hames and poor Paddy they tried to kill. They loaded him up in a aul ass and cart as Kate and Mary stood by. O, bad cess to the day you went away to join with the Tinker band,".....so perhaps the words "sport and kill" werent so far off the mark if the Pecker's lyrics are anything to go by!!

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: thetwangman
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 02:58 PM

here's a link to robbie mcmahon discussing and performing spancil hill in full on the derek mooney radio show. follow the link and listen to the show broadcast on monday june 22nd 2009. the piece on spancil hill starts 33 minutes into the show.

http://www.rte.ie/radio/mooneygoeswild/archive/index.html

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: MartinRyan
Date: 22 Jun 09 - 05:21 PM

If you've never heard Robbie sing Spancil Hill - DON'T MISS THIS CHANCE! (See last post) He starts to sing "a verse or two" at about 43 minutes into the programme, down the phone. Needless to say, he sings the full nine yards in that wonderful, iron bar voice - at the age of eighty two.

Regards

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: MartinRyan
Date: 23 Jun 09 - 02:27 PM

Refresh

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST,yvonne forde
Date: 05 Dec 18 - 11:15 AM

michael Considine was my fathers gran uncle --Ellen Considine (michaels sister) was his granmother.. married to John Forde

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST,Pat
Date: 31 Dec 18 - 02:03 PM

Hi Yvonne Forde,

Does someone in your family still have the original copy of the poem that Micheal Considine sent home to his six year old nephew John Considine?

Can you share any more information about the original copy of the poem
and the exact wording of the poem.

Thank you

Pat

Subject: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST,guest The Sandman
Date: 14 Jan 21 - 04:35 AM

I read somewhere that Pecker Dunne claimed he wrote the tune for this.
I was under the impression that he wrote the song Sullivans John which mentions Spancil Hill, but not the song Spancil Hill, can anyone provide info on the origins of the song.
I was busking one time in the 1990s in Skibbereen and Pecker kindly gave me a punt, some six months or so later, I saw Pecker busking in Killarney with his mandolin, ,he was a good player, so i returned the compliment and put a punt in his box.
Redistribution of Wealth

Subject: RE: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 21 - 05:04 AM

ok , i found some info It was written by Michael Considine, who was born in August 1850 close to Spancil Hill Crossroads

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: Jeri
Date: 14 Jan 21 - 09:28 AM

Dick, there are quite a few threads on this song. Doing a search is helpful.

Subject: RE: DTStudy: Spancil Hill
From: GUEST,Chris Ennis,
Date: 05 Jun 21 - 06:29 AM

The song " My Bonny Irish Boy" was where Robbie McMahon got the "Air" for Spancil Hill. . Source ,Robbie McMahon.