Subject: Lyr Add: NEW ROSS TOWN (from Mary Delaney)
From:
Jim Carroll
Date: 29 Nov 09 - 08:01 AM
This from Tipperary Travelling woman Mary Delaney along with the CD note.
Jim Carroll
^^
New Ross Town
(Roud 277, Laws 017)
Mary Delaney
For, as I went out on a moonlight night
As the moon shined bright and clearly,
When a New Ross girl I chanced to meet,
She looks at me surprising;
We had a roo ry rah, fol the diddle ah,
Roo ry, roo ry, roo ry rah.
"Oh, will I go, my dear," he says,
"Or will I go my honey?"
Nice and gay she answered me,
"Go down and ask me mammy."
We'll have roo ry rah, fol the diddle ah,
Roo ry rah she was a tome* old hag.
Oh, I went down to her mammy's house
When the moon shined bright and clearly,
She opened the door and let me in
And her mammy never heard us;
We had...
"Oh, soldier dear, will you marry me
For now is your time or ever,
Oh, Holy God, will you marry me?
If you don't and I'm ruined for ever;"
With my...
"You are too young, my dear," he says,
"You are too young, my honey."
"For if you think I am too young,
Go down and ask me mammy;"
We'll have...
"How old are you, my dear," he says,
"How old are you, my honey?"
Nice and gay she answered me,
"Gone seventeen since Sunday."
With my ...
"Now I have a wife and a comely wife,
And a wife, I won't forsake her,
There's ne'er a town I would walk down
Where I'd get one if I take her."
With my roo ry rah, fol the diddle ah,
Roo ry rah you are a tome old hag.
[* tome : good - Gammon or Cant]
Usually known as Seventeen Come Sunday, this was extremely popular throughout Eng¬land where it has been described as 'one of the most widely known folk songs of all'. The two texts published in the Sharp Collection conclude with the couple who have spent the night together getting married, while Mary's ends with the girl's demands of marriage being rejected. Quite often, as here, the seducer is a soldier.
In Scotland, Robert Burns found the song in Nithsdale and sent a re-written version of it to the Scofs Musical Museum (1787-1803) where it was published under the title A Waukrife Minnie; (A Watchful Mother). It was claimed there that it had never before appeared in print.
The Irish variants seem to have been found mainly in the northern counties. We recorded this from Mary on a number of occasions and, although it was one of her favourite songs and among the first she gave us, she never sang it the same way twice. She would cut out verses or change them around as the mood took her and, at one time, she sang:
"You are too young, my dear," he said. "You are too young my honey." "Oh, if you think I am too young, You must lay me down and try me."
She learned the song some thirty years earlier from Co Tipperary traveller, 'Snap' Cash.
Ref: Scots Musical Museum, (vol. 4), James Johnson, Wm Blackwood, 1853.
Other CDs: Bob Hart - MTCD 301-2 & TSCD660; Walter Pardon - MTCD 305-6, Joe Heaney-Topic
TSCD651 &TSCD518D.
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