Lyr Add: Where My Eileen Is Waiting For Me

Subject: Lyr Add: Where My Eileen Is Waiting For Me
From: RunrigFan
Date: 05 Sep 20 - 08:17 PM

Traditional

I am always light-hearted and easy,
Not a care in the world have I,
For I know I am loved by a colleen
And I could not forget if I tried.

She lives far away o'er the mountain
Where the little birds sing on the trees;
In a cottage all covered with ivy
My Eileen is waiting for me.

chorus

It's over, it's over the mountain
Where the little birds sing on the trees,
In a cottage all covered with ivy
My Eileen is waiting for me.

The time I bade good-bye to Eileen
Is a time I will never forget
For the tears bubbled up from their slumbers
I fancy I see them yet;

They looked like the pearls in the ocean
As she wept her tale of love.
And she said 'My dear boy, don't forget

Willie John Macaulay version

Traditional

Verse 1

I'm always light-hearted and easy,
Not a care in the world have I,
For I know I am loved by a lassie
And I couldn't forget if I tried.

Chorus

She lives far away o'er the mountains
Where the little birds sing in the trees;
In a cottage all covered with ivy
My Eileen is waiting for me.


It's over, it's over the mountain
Where the little birds sing in the trees,
In a cottage all covered with ivy
My Eileen is waiting for me.

The time I wave good-bye to Eileen
Twas a time I will never forget
For the tears bubbled up from their slumbers
I fancy I see them yet;

They looked like the pearls in the ocean
As she wept her tale of love.
And she said 'My dear boy, don't forget me
Till we meet here again or above.

Chorus

It's over, it's over the mountain
Where the little birds sing in the trees,
In a cottage all covered with ivy
My Eileen is waiting for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGIuQFuegnw&list=OLAK5uy_lY0LtjlTyD1TiOG064Wp2uHucUbmLopHQ&index=2

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Where My Eileen Is Waiting For Me
From: leeneia
Date: 05 Sep 20 - 08:29 PM

Thanks. That's a pretty song.

In America Eileen is pronounced ei-LEEN, but Willie sings it with the accent on the first syllable. I know a woman from Wales who says it that way too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Where My Eileen Is Waiting For Me
From: RunrigFan
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 04:32 AM

I assume Willie John is from one of the islands, such as Lewis, Skye, Hebrides etc

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Where My Eileen Is Waiting For Me
From: Felipa
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 08:27 AM

Leenia, I think it depends where in America you are, as I never remember putting the stress on the second syllable the way I would in "Good night Irene".

In Ireland you can hear "coleen" pronounced with emphasis on either syllable. In the north, coleen (cailín) would be pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable. I think most Americans would pronounce it with the stress on the second syllable, as you say Eileen is pronounced.

One name which changes a lot trans-Atlanticly is the surname Mahoney. In Ireland the stress is slightly on the first syllable and there is a short "o" as in the word "honey"; in America it has stress on the middle syllable, a long "o" and rhymes with "phoney".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Where My Eileen Is Waiting For Me
From: Peter Fisher
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 12:29 PM

Having traveled around Ireland several times, from Bantry Bay to Derry Quay and from Dublin to Galway town, with my wife, Eileen, I found her name always pronounced with accent on the second syllable there as it is here in the US.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Where My Eileen Is Waiting For Me
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 06 Sep 20 - 05:14 PM

I used to sing this old song in the pubs of West Cork years ago. I heard it from an LP of Don McLean- around 1980?

Did it in a folk club once & Keith Summers told me it came from Dock Boggs... he knew these things

As A Geordie, I'd put the emphasis on the first syllable or none- never the second.... but we're an awkward lot