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Subject: Lyr Req: Leaving of Limerick (Ireland) From: bfolkemer Date: 07 Feb 04 - 06:03 PM Dear Mudcatters, I am familiar with "The Leaving of LIverpool," but cannot find the alternate lyrics to "The Leaving of Limerick," or "The Leaving of Ireland," which are mentioned in some other threads on this site. Also, I'm not sure if the tunes are exactly the same. I have been told by one professional folksinger the "The Leaving of Liverpool" is an Irish song, because Liverpool was often the point of departure for an Irishman coming to America. However, I'm guessing the lyrics don't seem to mesh with that background, I think, unless one assumes that the Irishman has been living in England for awhile. Of course, my geographical knowledge is quite limited, so I may be wrong! BTW, my grandmother and her parents, who were from Liverpool, did come over to the US. I'm learning the song in her memory, but need to find out whether an Irish version exists, so that I can use it in some particular gigs. Thanks very much! Beth |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Leaving of Limerick (Ireland) From: Malcolm Douglas Date: 07 Feb 04 - 07:22 PM Probably this would better be followed up in the thread started a few days ago on The Leaving of Liverpool: Origins: Leaving of Liverpool Information available so far is included there, and really ought to be kept together in a reasonably manageable form with as little unnecessary duplication as possible. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Leaving of Limerick (Ireland) From: MartinRyan Date: 08 Feb 04 - 05:33 AM I've added the words to that thread. Regards |
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Subject: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Mr Happy Date: 17 Mar 15 - 10:49 AM Heard this beautiful song recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crVOqoHEoYI & the singer, Muhammad Al-Hussaini puts his rendering across magnificently - a superb talent!! The Leaving of Limerick As I roved out one evening down by the Assembly Mall I heard two lovers speaking, as me and my love passed on But the words that passed between them, they were but very few 'Tis not the leaving of Limerick that grieves me, But my darling, leaving you In the morning when I am going, I will take you by the lily white hand And I'll wave it o'er my shoulder saying adieu to the Limerick strand So farewell to the girls of Thomond Gate, 'tis to them I'll bid adieu 'Tis not the leaving of Limerick that grieves me, But my darling, leaving you And now that we must be parted, I know you will understand Why I must go brokenhearted, far away from my native land Though my fond love I must leave you, you know my heart is true 'Tis not the leaving of Limerick that grieves me, But my darling, leaving you |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Lighter Date: 17 Mar 15 - 11:00 AM Clearly related to "The Leaving of Liverpool." But how? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: GUEST,# Date: 17 Mar 15 - 11:05 AM http://www.irishroots.com/blog/?p=283 Some thoughts on the song at that site. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: GUEST,Peter C Date: 17 Mar 15 - 12:00 PM The tune is slightly different to 'Leaving of Liverpool' is the sheet music or ABC available anywhere? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Lighter Date: 17 Mar 15 - 12:02 PM Seemingly the song's first book publication was as an anonymous composition in The Limerick Compendium, by Jim Kemmy (1997). Kemmy's source was the Labour Party National Conference Magazine for April, 1997. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: MartinRyan Date: 17 Mar 15 - 01:02 PM There's plenty of discussion of The Leaving of Limerick in an earlier thread on The Leaving of Liverpool Click here Regards |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: BobKnight Date: 17 Mar 15 - 03:15 PM The second line of the second verse has always seemed nonsensical to me - unless someone has an explantion for it. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Lighter Date: 17 Mar 15 - 05:04 PM Thanks, Martin. I see that I even took part! I agree fully with your statement there that if "Limerick" is a recent song, it a remarkable "pastiche" of nineteenth-century style and usage. The present evidence is insufficient to determine which song, "Limerick" or Liverpool," "came first." (Though its late discovery disturbs me, my cautious bet must be on "Limerick.") What is of greater interes, though, is that outside of the Revival, both songs were exceedingly rare. Except, evidently, for a bare handful of singers, neither song had a presence in "tradition." (In other words, you could easily have lived a lifetime in Ireland or at sea having heard neither!) In the crass terms of simple "popularity" and "familiarity" among performers of folk songs, "Liverpool" got its start in the 1960s (not even Lloyd or MacColl recorded it), and "Limerick" in the twenty-first century. That puts them both in a different cultural perspective. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: GUEST,guest Date: 17 Mar 15 - 06:41 PM The second line sometimes is given as weave it over my shoulder perhaps just as nonsensical. I sing the verse below between verse 2 and 3 When I think of the pleasant days we spent in search of treasure trove And the hours we spent in courting away in Gabbet's Grove; I did not then deceieve you when I vowed I would be true; It's not the leaving etc... I have never dared sing this out as I am convinced the chorus will be hijacked to the tune for the leaving of Liverpool and I have enough trouble not drifting into that tune for the last line of the verse. Beautiful tune no matter how old it is. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: GUEST Date: 17 Mar 15 - 07:00 PM Deirdre Scanlon sings this beautifully on Speak Softly CD |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Richard Mellish Date: 03 Jan 17 - 07:44 AM I have been re-reading this thread and the Origins: Leaving of Liverpool one which discusses the relationship between these two songs. I have also been listening to the Nora Butler recording on her CD and to performances of this song by several other singers that are available on the Web. BobKnight 17 Mar 15 - 03:15 PM said The second line of the second verse has always seemed nonsensical to me - unless someone has an explantion for it and GUEST,guest 17 Mar 15 - 06:41 PM agreed The second line sometimes is given as weave it over my shoulder perhaps just as nonsensical. The sequence "I will take you by the lily white hand And I'll wave it oer my shoulder" is certainly nonsense if one takes the word "it" to refer to the girl's hand, so that can't have been the meaning. Was "wave it over my shoulder" a common alternative to just "wave" in Hiberno-English? I am inclined to sing this song myself but would like to do something about that line. Some of the singers have made small changes to the words elsewhere in the song, but I haven't found a version that has dealt with that line. One set of words on the web starts that verse with "In the morning when I'm going I'll wave my lily-white hand", which does allow the next line to make some sense but seems pretty silly in itself. The usual first line where he will take her hand is fine, except that "lily-white" is superfluous and spoils the metre, so I am inclined to leave that out. And then there's the extra verse "when I think of the pleasant days ..." that appears in some versions. Where did that come from? Butler doesn't sing it on the CD. Did she sing it on another occasion or did it turn up somewhere else? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Jack Campin Date: 03 Jan 17 - 08:46 AM I can't help thinking of Tom Lehrer's "I Hold Your Hand in Mine". |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Richard Mellish Date: 03 Jan 17 - 09:25 AM Yes, Jack, I had the same thought but forebore to mention it. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: Richard Mellish Date: 25 Jul 22 - 08:43 AM I've been listening (belatedly) to some of the recordings from last September's online Frank Harte Festival. One of the songs here is The Leaving of Limerick. That has prompted me to re-read and now revive this thread. I am no further in getting the song ready to sing than I was 5½ years ago. Besides the confusing wording in verse 2 discussed above, I'm also uncomfortable with "as me and my love passed on" in verse 1. It doesn't rhyme and, although there are other songs with a narrator recounting a dialogue between lovers, it's very surprising to have the narrator's own lover present as well, the more so as the latter person gets no further mention. Having regard also to the fact that the Assembly Mall was renamed to Charlotte's Quay (I think in the mid-1800s but I now can't find the reference), I've provisionally changed the opening lines to: As I roved out one evening, it was down by Charlotte's Quay I heard two lovers speaking/talking and they paid no heed to me. Richard |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: GUEST,Consulting Researcher (retd) Date: 28 Jul 22 - 06:29 PM "Wave t'ye o'er my shoulder" ("Wave to you over my shoulder") gets around the problem. The "Limerick" one, and indeed the familiar "Liverpool" one of some years earlier, "Lord knows how long", strike me as both pastiches of nineteenth-century songs. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Leaving of Limerick From: FreddyHeadey Date: 01 Aug 22 - 07:09 PM ^^ Richards link for Anne Skelton's singing on the Frank Harte Festival 2021 (zoom) with a timestamp https://youtu.be/nwKXCk5oCDs?t=85m13s (if it's not working skip to 1:25:13) |
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