Origins: Ned of the Hill

Subject: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: mg
Date: 03 Aug 11 - 11:35 PM

It is a song I have probably not ever heard in person..but it is very pretty.

Click here

This singer says Ned himself wrote lyrics...is that considered to be so? mg

-------Blue clicky added. JoeClone --------------

Subject: RE: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: MartinRyan
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 02:57 AM

Several earlier threads on this song family - which is essentially an Irish (language) song with a a number of English translations/adaptations:

Click here for a start, with links to others.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 04 Aug 11 - 04:51 AM

"The song concerns Éamonn Ó Riain (Edmund Ryan), an Irish aristocrat who lived in County Tipperary from 1670–1724 and led a bandit or rapparee gang. Although there is no positive proof of Ryan's existence, he is mentioned in a pamphlet of 1694, in which he and four other raparee leaders called for the overthrow of William of Orange in favour of the Catholic James II.[1]
The background to Ryan's career was the confiscation of Irish Catholic land in the Act of Settlement 1652 after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland when many dispossessed landowners became outlaws, known as "tories" or "rapparees". Their ranks were swelled after the Williamite War of 1689-91, when many of the defeated Catholic Jacobites turned to banditry. It is likely that Ryan himself served in the Jacobite army.
It is said that Ryan became a rapparee or outlaw after shooting a tax collector dead during a quarrel over the confiscation of a poor woman's cow. Various other stories are told in which Ó Riain plays the role of the rebel hero who battles authority in the mode of Robin Hood and countless others."

Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: Stewart
Date: 05 Aug 11 - 12:02 AM

Hi Mary,

It's also a nice slow air. I play it on the fiddle and sing an English translation - I'll play it for you up in Canada in a couple of weeks.

Here from Fiddler's Companion:

NED OF THE HILL [1] (Eamonn/Eadmun an Cnuic). AKA - "Edmund of the Hill." AKA and see "As a Beam O'er the Waters," "Captain Carswell [1]," "Col O'Gara," "Eamonn a' Chnuic," "The Young Man's Dream." Irish, Slow Air (3/4 or 6/8 time). G Major/E Minor. Standard. AB (O'Neill, Roche): AABB (O'Farrell, Shields/Goodman). An Irish ballad of the period 1698‑1704 written in memory of Edmond (O')Ryan, of Knockmeill Castle, Co. Tipperary, who was an outlaw under King William. Edmond, or Ned, was the scion of an old family, the O'Ryans of Kilnelongurty, County Tipperary, who "was forced to become a Rapparee, and to do a man's part in spoiling the spoiler" (Flood, 1906). O'Ryan "took to the hills" after the capitulation of Limerick, and was murdered in one of the first years 18th century by one Dwyer for the reward of 200 Pounds set by the British on his head. He is burried in Curraheen, near Hollyford. The air itself dates from the close of the 16th century (though the first printed version appeared in 1729), according to Flood, and it underwent various modifications between the years 1600 and 1760 appearing under many titles, including "The Young Man's..." and a Scotch variant (in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, 1788) "I Dreamed I Lay" with words by Robert Burns. Another early printing of the melody appears in the appendix to Walker's Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786). Source for notated version: a manuscript collection dated 1861 by the Anglican cleric and piper James Goodman (1828-1896), who collected primarily in County Cork [Shields]. O'Farrell (National Irish Music for the Union Pipes), 1804; pg. 21. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1979; No. 133, pg. 24. Roche Collection, 1982, vol. 1; No. 1, pg. 7. Shields (Tunes of the Munster Pipers), 1998; No. 34, pg. 16. Plant Life Records PLR017, "The Tannahill Weavers" (1979).

Cheers, S. in Seattle

Subject: RE: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: Joe Offer
Date: 27 Sep 21 - 03:42 PM

Joe - consolidate

Subject: RE: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 28 Sep 21 - 10:55 AM

My friend Dougie Mackenzie does a fine version of this song, on his recent CD, Along the Way, available on Greentrax.

https://www.greentrax.com/music/product/dougie-mackenzie-with-brian-miller-along-the-way

Subject: RE: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: JHW
Date: 28 Sep 21 - 02:34 PM

Pat Wilson used to sing this very nicely. Brothers still sing but maybe not Pat. Don't know if she recorded it.

Subject: RE: Origins: Ned of the Hill
From: Stewart
Date: 28 Sep 21 - 03:04 PM

here's a discussion of the tune Eamonn a’ Chnuic (Ned of the Hill) with Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin and Ilse de Ziah
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA9SQFUdAnk

and a nice rendition by Brent Nokes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAZPcNL-dQ8

each tells a story of Éamonn Ó Riain (Edmund O'Ryan)

Cheers, S. in Seattle