Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,James Phillips
Date: 22 May 22 - 11:24 AM

My favorite versions of this song:

Mick Hanly's live version with Andy Irvine at the 5th Irish Folk Festival

Altan's version with some very nice slide guitar

MacMurrough's version on their album "Merry and Fine"

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 May 22 - 03:13 PM

There's quite an impressive entry in the Traditional Ballad Index:

False Young Man, The (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)

DESCRIPTION: The young man greets the girl after a long separation and asks her to sit down with him. She will not; "You've given your heart to another one...." She remembers his strange oaths, and says young men will prove true when fish fly like birds.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (collected by Olive Dame Campbell; in Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians); +1876 (Christie, _Traditional Ballad Airs I_)
KEYWORDS: love courting separation infidelity lie rejection lyric
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland) Ireland US(Ap,MA,SE,So)
REFERENCES (20 citations):
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore2 83, "As I Stepped Out Last Sunday Morning" (2 texts); 162, "The One Forsaken" (1 text, entirely of floating lyrics, but some of them, and the theme, are this song)
Korson-PennsylvaniaSongsAndLegends, p. 29, "The Cottage Door" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy-YellowbellyBalladsPart2 51, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, p. 174, "The Fause Young Man" (1 text)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 8, "The Verdant Braes of Skreen" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride-FlowerOfDunaffHillAndMoreTradSongsInnishowen 2, "As I Roved Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol5, pp. 68-69, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune, which starts with verses typical of "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" and ends with the "Rocky Mountain Top/White Oak Mountain" verses of "The False Young Man (The Rose in the Garden, As I Walked Out)"
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 94, "The False Young Man" (10 texts, 10 tunes)
Scarborough-ASongCatcherInSouthernMountains, p. 41, "Come Along, My Own True Love" (1 text, with a first verse that might have floated in from "Young Hunting" or the like); pp. 270-272, "The False Young Man" (3 short texts plus an excerpt, with local titles "Come Along, My Own True Love," "Set You Down, My Own True Love," "As I Walked Out One May Morning"; 1 tune on p. 428 )
Fowke-TraditionalSingersAndSongsFromOntario 15, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 7, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Johnston-FolkSongsOfCanada, pp. 166-168, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Wyman/Brockway-LonesomeSongs-KentuckyMountains-Vol2, p. 50, "As I Walked Out" (1 text, 1 tune)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-2ed, pp. 58-59, "As I Walked Out on a Fair May Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 342, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 143, "T Stands for Thomas" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 153, "The False Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H593, pp. 389-390, "My Love John" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 41-42, "The Verdant Braes o' Skreen" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 198-199, "The Fause Young Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ166 (Partial)
Roud #419
RECORDINGS:
Frank & Francis McPeake, "The False Young Man" (on FSB01)
Mary Murphy, "The False Young Man" (on FSBFTX15)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "False, False Hae Ye Been To Me, My Love" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Johnny's The Lad I Love
White Oak Mountain
Rocky Mountain Side
NOTES [108 words]: In America, this has become almost purely lyric (consider "White Oak Mountain":
"I will never believe a young man any more
Let his eyes be blue, black, or brown
Save he were on the top of a high gallows tree
A-swearing he wished to come down!") -- so much so that I originally classified the versions separately. But there are enough intermediate forms to prove identity.
The song also mixes somewhat with "Foggy Mountain Top," itself a largely mixed and incoherent piece. Short lyric texts might perhaps go with either. - RBW
Also see Planxty, "'P' Stands for Paddy, I Suppose" (on Planxty, "Cold Blow on the Rainy Night," Shanachie 79011 (1979)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: FJ166

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Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 21 Jul 20 - 11:22 AM

To hark back to John's long list of versions in the Roud index, the earliest version I have 'Johnny is a Handsome Man' was printed by Armstrong of Liverpool 1820-24. There are at least 2 versions of this printing on the Bodleian site. Quite a few of Armstrong's printings came from Irishmen arriving in the city, and spread out from there across the rest of the UK to other printers, being developed on the way, pieces like Molly Bawn, Willie Leonard, Fanny Blair, Strands of Magilligan. The Irish origin is at least a possibility.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 21 Jul 20 - 11:15 AM

'it was his uncle John Murphy's (1866 - 1929) song.' In common parlance all that means is that he sang it or was known for singing it. (Unless the quote is more specific.)

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 20 - 02:27 PM

I have a feeling this song was written by John Murphy, Carnanbane, Dungiven. Tomas O'Canainn mentioned in his memoirs that it was his uncle John Murphy's (1866 - 1929) song.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,Bearheart
Date: 16 Sep 18 - 07:35 PM

I don't know how to format this correctly but this is Altan's version. I tend to trust Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh with the Gaelic (and most everything else!). The the first line of the second verse is quite different from how others have scanned it. If you look here: https://www.teanglann.ie/en/fgb/abhann it seems to refer to a river (side).


As I roved out one evening fair
By the verdant braes of Screen
I set my back to a hawthorn tree
To view the sun in the west country
And the dew on the forest green

A lad I spied by Abhann's side
And a maiden by his knee
And he was as dark as the very brown wood
And she all whey and wan to see
All whey and wan was she

"Oh sit you down on the grass," he said
"On the dewy grass so green
For the wee birds all have come and gone
Since I my true love have seen," he said
"Since I my true love have seen"

"Then I'll not sit on the grass," she said
"Nor be a love of thine
For I hear you love a Connaught maid
And your heart's no longer mine," she said
"And your heart's no longer mine"

"And I will climb a high, high tree
And I'll rob a wild bird's nest
And back I'll bring whatever I do find
To the arms that I love best," she said
"To the arms that I love best"

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,Fear Ciuin
Date: 26 Aug 18 - 10:18 AM

I'm delighted someone mentioned Skreen in Co Sligo even though it might not be connected to the song but never fear it has it's song

THE BEAUTY OF SKREEN

The beauty of Skreen is the sweetest I’ve seen,
It is a joy to behold,
From the Ox mountains to the ocean so deep,
Each day sees its grandeur unfold.
It nestles in the County of Sligo,
Between Templeboy and Dromard,
A perfect oasis so charming,
Enough to inspire a bard.

(Chorus)
I want to fly over the Ox mountains
Where the sights make my heart want to sing
Those verdant braes always excite me
I feel like a bird on the wing

Ladies Brae always looks so majestic,
From its vantage point ever so high,
O’er a scene that is so panoramic,
From here my delights multiply.
On Dunmoran Strand I oft times stroll out,
As the waves just lap at my feet,
That setting so calm and so peaceful,
It is both a tonic and treat.

The grass around Skreen is so very green,
Beside the Atlantic so blue,
It ever enhances, it ever entrances,
It is such an enchanting view.
Leekfield, Massreagh down to Soodry,
Farnaharpy up to Doonflynn,
How often I’ve travelled those highways,
As I hope to again and again.

If ever you feel at a loose end,
If you need someplace to go,
Just take a trip o’er those mountains,
And gaze on the beauty below.
Your spirits will soar with the angels,
Your joy it will be unconfined,
In the jewel of the sweet county Sligo,
Which will linger long in your mind.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 17 Mar 15 - 08:11 AM

Beware "Thread Creep" and I'm not being personal. Connacht, Connaught, grand as long as we understand one another.

So to return to the Topic - it appears to have been overlooked that I have above, clarified the location of the version of 'The Verdant Braes of Skreen' that is published in Herbert Hughes' Irish Country Songs' Vol. 1. - it's County Derry. Nevertheless, Hughes' text has been 'adapted'. and Skreen might be an affectation. However, Colm Ó Lochlainn in More Irish Street Ballads (no. 8) gives the song and, in his note, credits it to the singing of Dr Seán O Ceallaigh, a native of Ballinascreen. The only other versions that use the spelling Skreen are a range of recordings by the McPeakes, themselves originally from Derry. Can anything more be said without further evidence?

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MartinRyan
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 08:52 PM

OK. So "Connaught" is British English and "Connacht" is Hiberno-English - or Irish English, if you prefer. No problem.

Regards

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Thompson
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 07:57 PM

I don't want to fall out with anyone over this, but Connacht is the name in English as well. Connaught is the name of a hotel, and indeed one of the local newspapers keeps this nostalgic spelling 'The Connaught Tribune' (the other is the Connacht Telegraph), but no literate person would seriously think of spelling the province in any way other than Connacht nowadays.
But as I say, it's not something to fall out about. If you prefer the Anglo spelling harking back to the days of Empire, stick with it and we can still be friends.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 06:25 PM

Yes, actually, I do object. As a native German, it's long bothered me that Koeln has become "Cologne" and Muenchen "Munich" to English speakers - I suppose it's because English speakers can't be arsed to learn how to pronounce German umlauts and gutturals. However, "London" should be as easy for a French speaker to say as "Londres", so why make up your own version?

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MartinRyan
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 06:20 PM

I suspect Michaelr is just arguing for the crack...

Regards

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 05:56 PM

Disagree, michaelr. It may be the 'correct spelling' in Irish; but the English language happens to have another name for it. Or do you object to the French daring to call our capital 'Londres', and the Italians 'Londra'? Or do you call the Irish capital, in normal conversation [or even in your mind], Baile Átha Cliath? Away you!

Here's one for you -- what are the capitals of Italy, Israel and Russia.

≈M≈




If you replied Roma, Yerushalayim, Moskva, you are an affected booby!

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: michaelr
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 05:06 PM

a conceited, arrogant, foolish affectation said he without a hint of irony. Well, so is pedantry.

In addition, it should be up to the Irish to decide the correct spelling of their geographical entities.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 06:11 AM

"ISO 3166-2 Newsletter II-1, 19 February 2010, which gives "Connaught" as the official English name of the Province and "Connacht" as the official Irish name of the Province and cites "Ordnance Survey Office, Dublin 1993" as its source" – Wikipedia

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 05:37 AM

Where two coexistent spellings for the same concept [in this case an Irish county] are both widely accepted, it is vain dogmatically to pronounce one 'correct' and the other not, Thompson. All one is doing is elevating a personal preference to a rigid and inflexible rule: a conceited, arrogant, foolish affectation.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MartinRyan
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 04:17 AM

What's a "British spelling" , please? Do Amricans spell it differently, for example?

Regards

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Thompson
Date: 16 Mar 15 - 03:31 AM

"Thompson -- You will note that I had already given that info re Connacht in my post 7 back - 9 Mar, 10·12 am.; & also named the 4 provinces (ancient kingdoms) above, 13 Nov 12, 3·42 am

"≈M≈"

Well, no, Lion. You said that the Irish prefer the spelling Connacht. I'm saying that this is the correct spelling. Slightly different.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,#
Date: 15 Mar 15 - 12:09 PM

Cara Dillon

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 15 Mar 15 - 11:50 AM

The Herbert Hughes version was collected in Derry. The Roud index entry contains a typo.Kerry for Derry.

After some heaving of boxes I have found my copies of Hughes "Irish Couuntry Songs" - in vol.1 pp. 1-3 is The verdant braes of Skreen. It clearly states the source to have been 'From an old ballad' 'County Derry'. The locale is thus more probably Ballinascreen, and it is certain that the text is an adaptation.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 03:27 AM

Thompson -- You will note that I had already given that info re Connacht in my post 7 back - 9 Mar, 10·12 am.; & also named the 4 provinces (ancient kingdoms) above, 13 Nov 12, 3·42 am

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 01:31 AM

Incidentally, 'Connaught' is a British spelling of what we call Connacht in Ireland. Connacht is the western of the four provinces: Ulster in the north (nine counties, six of them in a different jurisdiction); Leinster in the east, Munster in the south and Connacht in the west.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Mar 15 - 12:37 AM

Indeed -- & Kerry is far far away from either Skreen or Screen, isnt it!

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 12 Mar 15 - 12:16 PM

Google search discovers that either is widely used - consistency is sometimes unattainable. The Roud Index lists 4 occurances of the song using Screen and 6 that use Skreen so it's also inconclusive. I prefer to use Screen in order to emphasise the generally accepted locus. However, the songs first appearance (in Herbert Hughes' Irish Country Songs' vol. 3) uses Skreen and perhaps the matter should be further investigated. According to Roud the Hughes version was collected in Kerry. I wonder has anyone the book - mine is currently inaccessible - to check whether this is correct, it would be easy to type Kerry instead of Derry?

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 11 Mar 15 - 12:47 PM

Tho if that is the case, why is the name so resolutely spelt with a K throughout the texts, like the town in Sligo, rather than with a C as your identification would suggest?

Still feel some confusion or inconsistency somewhere.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 11:23 AM

Ah. I had missed that. Thank you, John. I am, I fear, a resolute taxonomist and like things to be just so!

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 10 Mar 15 - 09:59 AM

As I said far above, Screen in this song refers, not to the village in Sligo, but is a common abbreviation of Ballinascreen, the Irish name for the town in south Derry/Londonderry renamed Draperstown by the London Company which undertook to develop the land at the time of the Plantation of Ulster (post 1609).

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Mar 15 - 10:12 AM

A slight geographical oddity -- Skreen is a village in Co Sligo, which is itself part of the region which formed the ancient kingdom of Connaught [or Connacht as the Irish prefer to call it]; so that the girl in the song is herself "a Connaught maid": does it not seem strange then that she should specify her rival as being such, with the implication that she is some sort of intrusive external interloper?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 09 Mar 15 - 08:49 AM

Belatedly checking: I find the version in DT gives "Connaught"; & also contains the stanza I asked about 13 Nov 12, 5.18, (the one about wanting to come down from the high gallows tree) which seems to be omitted from sets cited above.

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Mar 15 - 08:39 AM

Reverting to previous point we spent some time on above, re "corner, Connaught, Garnock, Carnock &c": I hear Frank Harte there singing "For I hear you are in love with a fair Connaught maid". Agreed?

≈M≈

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Oct 14 - 05:35 AM

very good singing.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MartinRyan
Date: 11 Oct 14 - 09:20 AM

Hear the great Frank Harte singing this at The Goilin Song Project - complete with key-change!

Click here

Regards

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 03 Sep 14 - 10:40 AM

The attribution, in most libraries, to Richard Lalor Sheils as the author of Sheil's Love Songs (or to Sheil's Shamrock - which has mainly patriotic songs) is not correct. The author was one John Sheil, a weaver, probably from Co Armagh, whose family relocated to Drogheda during or after the 1798 rebellion. I'm currently working on a paper that will associated Sheil (locally pronounced 'Shale") with a range of songs even greater than that in the over twenty volumes of 'Love SOngs' and 'Shamrock'.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: zozimus
Date: 11 Jul 14 - 04:33 PM

Thanks, Matthew, I'm overdue a trip to NLI, might get there next week.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: zozimus
Date: 11 Jul 14 - 04:33 PM

Thanks, Matthew, I'm overdue a to NLI, might get there next week.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 11 Jul 14 - 04:17 PM

The National Library of Ireland catalogue, and the Trinity College Dublin library catalogue, both list Sheil's Love Songs;being a collection of the much admired songs of that popular poet, published at the Argus Office, Drogheda, 1834 in two volumes. The NLI attributes it to Richard Lalor Sheil, 1791-1851, politician and dramatist, while TCD merely credits a Richard Sheil. If the song you're looking for exists anywhere it ought to be there somewhere. Good luck!

Matthew

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Matthew Edwards
Date: 11 Jul 14 - 04:01 PM

The Irish Traditional Music Archive catalogue lists a copy of Shiel's Love Songs which they attribute to John Sheil[sic]. None of the listed contents look like the 'The Fair Maid of Screen' mentioned in 'Greenmount Smiling Anne', but for what it is worth I'll add them here:-

Mary the Star of Cullfure [song: words only] (air: The Shamrock Shore) -- Nice Little Neat Little Factory Maid, The [song: words only] (air: The Unfortunate Rake) -- Garristown Jack [song: words only] (air: Paddy O'Carroll) -- Brilliant Bright Torch of Ardee, The [song: words only] (air: The Fair Colleen Dhue) -- Posey of Stabannon, The [song: words only] (air: The Coronation) -- Young Henry of Sweet Ravensdale [song: words only] (air: The Bonny Sweet Banks of Finn) -- Flower of Beamore, The [song: words only] (air: The Rose of Ardee) -- Bellewstown Hill [song: words only]

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: zozimus
Date: 10 Jul 14 - 07:20 PM

In the song "Greenmount Smiling Ann", versions of which occur in many broadside collections, the Ann in the song sings Shiel's "Fair Maid of Skreen". Is this a reference to "Verdant Braes of Skreen" or is there another song about Skreen? I cannot find a link to "Fair Maid of Skreen.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 16 Mar 14 - 10:02 AM

Have little doubt that the Fureys and Corries got it from that wonderful 1962 Topic LP by the McPeake family- Louis Killen was also am early singer, wherever it came from....

Subject: Lyr Add: THE VERDANT BRAES OF SKREEN
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Nov 12 - 07:35 PM

From Colm O Lochlainn, More Irish Street Ballads (Dublin : Three Candles, ©1965), page 16:


8.—THE VERDANT BRAES OF SKREEN

As I roved out one evening fair,
By the verdant braes of Skreen,
I set my back to a hawthorn tree,
To view the sun in the west country,
The dew on the forest green.

A lad I spied by our burn-side,
And a maiden by his knee,
And he was dark as the berry brown red,
And she all wae and worn to see,
All wae and worn was she.

"O! sit ye down on the grass," he said,
"On the dewy grass so green,
For the wee birds all have come and gone
Since I my true love have seen," he said,
"Since I've my true love seen."

"O! then, I'll not sit on the grass," she said,
"Nor be a love of thine,
For I hear you love a Connacht maid,
And your heart is no longer mine," she said,
"And your heart is no longer mine."

"O! I'll not heed what an old man says,
For his days are well-nigh done,
And I'll not heed what a young man says,
For he's fair for many a one," she says,
"For he's fair for many a one."

"But I will climb a high, high tree,
And rob a wild bird's nest,
And back I'll bring whatever I do find
To the arms that I love best," she said,
"To the arms that I love best."


[End note:] More than fifty years ago I learnt this from Dr. Séamus Ó Ceallaigh who lived at 53 Rathgar Road. He was a native of Ballinascreen and numbered among his ancestors Cormac Ó Ceallaigh, a famous harper and harp-maker. See Ceól No. 3 ** Dr. Ó Ceallaigh. Herbert Hughes has printed the tune and the three final verses Irish Country Songs, vol. i (Boosey, 1909). In Dr. Ó Ceallaigh's house was held one of the last meetings of the leaders before the Rising of 1916.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 04:42 PM

Years ago I won a song writing shield award from Connaught Gold Butter. But even then I didn't make the connection.

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 04:38 PM

Above was me. Cookie now reset. Dunno why it had disappeared. Does someone cause them to disintegrate by dipping them in the tea?

Richard

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 04:24 PM

When I learnt this song a long while ago it included the "I'll not heed ..." verse, as also recalled (with somewhat different words) by MtheGM. Only now following some of the links further up this thread do I discover that some versions lack that verse.

I have never been sure which party is saying some of the things. "I'll not heed ..." is probably the girl speaking, but could be the boy telling her not to believe what she's heard about him. Where some versions have "back I'll bring ... she said", the lovely version from Mai Hernon has "back I'll bring whatever I shall find to the girl ...". So there is indeed uncertainty.

The alleged new lover is often said to be a "Connaught" maid, but in the version that I first heard it sounded more like "Garnock" and both the Hernon and Dillon versions sound to me like "Carnock". Anyone have theories about that?

Richard

Subject: Lyr Add: THE VERDANT BRAES OF SKREEN (from Hughes)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 11:40 AM

Sheet music for voice and piano accompaniment can be found in Irish Country Songs, Vol. 1, edited, arranged, and for the most part collected by Herbert Hughes (London: Boosey & Co., 1909), page 1:

[Only 3 verses are given.]


THE VERDANT BRAES OF SKREEN
[Words?] From an old Ballad. [Music?] County Derry.

"Oh , I'll not sit on the grass," she said,
"Nor be a love of thine,
For I hear you love a Connacht maid,
And your heart is no longer mine," she said,
"And your heart is no longer mine."

"Oh, I'll not heed what an old man says
Whose days are well nigh done,
And I'll not heed what a young man says,
For he's fair for many a one," she says,
"For he's fair for many a one."

"Oh I will climb a high, high tree
And rob a wild bird's nest,
And back I'll bring whatever I do find
To the arms that I love best," she said,
"To the arms that I love best."

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 08:29 AM

And there was me thinking the lucky old boot was having it off with the female equivalent of a corner boy. Or even a girl from notorious Connor family.

Silly me!

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: Jim McLean
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 08:25 AM

The Corries sang: ... for I hear ye lie wi' a Connaught girl ....

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 05:36 AM

Connaught makes more sense

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 05:18 AM

And running round in my head, a clinching final verse that I can't recall whose singing I got it from ~~

I will never more trust what a young man says
Be his eyes either blue or brown,
Unless that he be on a high gallows-tree
And he says that he wants to come down, my dear,
And he says that he wants to come down.

Anyone else come across this stanza?

~M~

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 03:42 AM

"... corner lass"? What mean ~~ prostitute, perhaps. Or possibly a mishearing or mondegreen? ~ I know this in most versions I have heard as "For I hear you are in love with a Connaught lass [or 'maid', tho 'lass' better makes an interior ½-rhyme or assonance with 'grass'], And your heart is no longer mine".

(Connaught, along with Leinster, Munster and Ulster, was one of the ancient 4 kingdoms of Ireland.)

~M~

Subject: RE: Origin: The Verdant Braes of Skreen
From: GUEST,Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Nov 12 - 01:28 AM

Yes i learned it off the Corries and The Promise of the Day album. Bu the time I nought it - the version of the Corries withjust two of them playing had their own TV series - so the repackaging of the The Promise of the Day on the Music for Pleasure label was a desperate cash in. I bought it at the local supermarket.

The Corries version was only three verses

Oh I won't sit on he grass she said
No lover will I be of thine
For I hear ye lie wi' a corner lass
And you heart's no longer mine, she said
And your heart's no longer mine.


I seem to remember Mick Hipkess of Drowsy Maggie singing a similar version.