Lyr Add: Irish songs about balls, wakes, soirees

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Irish songs about balls, wakes, soirees
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Jun 21 - 05:56 PM

Johnny Jump Up has a considerable yarn about a wake at the end of the song. It is at least partly about a wake. Don't worry about it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Irish songs about balls, wakes, soirees
From: GUEST,Peter Laban
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 10:40 AM

'all I can find of Amhrán na bhFia is a video of Con Ó Drisceoil singing. It is a difficult song to search for as the title resembles that of the Irish national anthem'

Yes that's a problem with the pun of the title.

It's one of the songs in his second collection 'Hunting of the Hair'

The song is based on a newspaper article of about drunken deer rampagign around the Swedish countryside after feasting on fermented apples. Con O'Driceoil anthropomorphised the affair, taking the step   'from reading of drunken deer to depicting them as following mankind's example: having a drink-sodden party that features singing, dancing, quarrelling and, eventually, violent outbursts [...]'

Hence my case for inclusion in this collection.

It starts:

One autumn eve in the south of Sweden,
A herd of deer were quietly feeding;
Sturdy stags and gentle does
In a peaceful scene of quiet repose.
One young buck who drifted northward
Wandered into a fertile orchard.
Munching widfall from the ground,
Their impact soon did him astound.

He called his mates, they were most contented;
Nibbling fruit that was well fermented;
Pains or worries, they felt neither,
Gorging themselves on solid cider.
Soon they were all in great condition,
Settling into a jovial session,
Dancing around ibn groups of four
And lilting the Bucks of Oranmore.


Followed by another twelve verses that I can't all type out right now.. but eventually making 'the obvious connection between apples, downfall and the story of Adam and Eve[...]'