Lyr Req: John Adair (Oh Nelly come away with me..)

Subject: John Adair
From: GUEST,Deirdre
Date: 18 Feb 06 - 09:31 AM

I'm looking for the words of this song, John Adair, that starts (I think)

"Oh Nelly come away with me beyond the leaf and fern"

Hoping someone can help. Le meas, Deirdre.

Subject: RE: lyr req: John Adair (Oh Nelly come away with m
From: Joe Offer
Date: 18 Feb 06 - 06:14 PM

refresh, with new and expanded title...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: John Adair (Oh Nelly come away with me..)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 24 Feb 06 - 10:24 PM

According to this article at Richard Thompson's web site Robert Burns had a friend named John Adair a.k.a. James Adair. This suggests it might be a Burns song you're looking for, but I have been unable to find such a song.

This page at Ulstersongs contains a review of an album by Rita Gallagher called "Easter Snow" (1997) which contains JOHN ADAIR. It says the song is about "the Derryveagh evictions on late 19th Century."

There's a short poem called CRUEL JOHN ADAIR at Danny Doyle's web site. John Adair, it says, was a cruel landlord who ordered the eviction of 254 people in Glenveagh, County Donegal in 1861.

The search is complicated by the fact that there are a number of real people named John Adair about whom much has been written.

Googling with the words you quoted didn't get me anywhere.

Subject: Lyr Add: JOHN ADAIR
From: GUEST,J
Date: 13 Feb 11 - 01:20 PM

I looked up "beyond the leaf and fern" and got:
[DOC]
Download File - Main Street Records - Home
File Format: Microsoft Word - Quick View
Oh Nellie come away with me, beyond the leaf and fern. A rural home I have for you, convenient to Lough Erne. The lark has risen from her nest, ...
www.mainstreetrecords.co.uk/.../download_easter_snow_song_lyrics.docx
Here is the text of the document


JOHN ADAIR

Oh Nellie, come away with me, beyond the leaf and fern.
A rural home I have for you, convenient to Lough Erne.
The lark has risen from her nest, and wild flowers scent the air.
While resting on this faithful breast, you’re free from John Adair.

Oh Willie, never talk to me of peace or happy home.
My parents have been dispossessed, this weary world to roam.
Sad dreary thoughts appease my mind. I’m almost in despair.
From happy homes we now must part, forced out by John Adair.

He brought the sheriff to our door, and quenched our fire so bright.
My aged grandsire is no more. He died that fateful night.
My mother weeps; her only son, a boy of beauty rare,
Just four months, so meek and mild, all done by John Adair.

For fifty weary years our race have tilled the mountain side,
And smoothed Glenveagh’s old rugged paths and stemmed the Atlantic tide.
Full fifty homes are levelled now, and wild cries rend the air
May fifty thousand curses fall on cruel John Adair.

A ploughboy poor his grandsire was, and came from Garryinch.
Supported by the villagers, his mother’s name was Trench;
But now he’s called a gentleman, as you are all aware,
And lives near Ballybrittas town. His name is John Adair.

A scavenger from the Curragh came, the spoiler of Glenveagh,
This cruel reckless worthless man, to swear our lives away.
Both judge and jury did confess that perjury was there,
But now thank God is our conscience safe from cruel John Adair.

This couple took one last lingering look, and parted no more to meet.
Young Willie lies beyond the sea, without a winding sheet;
But Nellie’s duty made her stay, her aged parents to care.
With broken heart she pines away, her death on John Adair.


Rita Gallagher – Easter Snow

Subject: Lyr Add: DERRYVEIGH
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 06:09 PM

Here's another ballad on the subject of "cruel John Adair," from The Letters of "Norah" on Her Tour through Ireland By "Norah" [Margaret Moran Dixon McDougall] (Montreal: "Published by public subscription as a token of respect by the Irishmen of Canada", 1882), page 48:


DERRYVEIGH.

The cold snow rests on levelled walls, where was a happy home.
The wintry sky looks down upon a desolate hearthstone.
The hearth by which the cradle song has lulled our infant's sleep
Is open to the pitying skies that nightly o'er it weep.
There is rippling in the waters, there is rustling through the air,
Five hundred thousand curses upon cruel John Adair.

It is not we that curse him, though in woe our sad heart bleeds.
The curse that's on him is the curse that follows wicked deeds.
He suspected and he punished, he judged, and then he drew
The besom of destruction our quiet homesteads through;
So it's rippling in the waters, it is rustling through the air,
Five hundred thousand curses upon cruel John Adair.

We little dreamed upon our hills destruction's hour was nigh.
Woe! Woe the day our quiet glens first met his cruel eye!
He coveted our mountains all in an evil hour.
We have tasted of his mercy, and felt his grasp of power.
Through years to come of summer sun, of wintry sleet and snow,
His name shall live in Derryveigh as Campbell's in Glencoe.

A tear is on each heather bell where heaven's dew distils,
And weeping down the mountain side flows on a thousand rills.
The winds rush down the empty glens with many a sigh and moan.
Where little children played and sang is desolate and lone.
The scattered stones of many homes have witnessed our despair,
And every stone's a monument to cruel John Adair.

Where are the hapless people, doomed by John Adair's decree?
Some linger in the drear poorhouse—some are beyond the sea.
One died behind the cold ditch—back beneath the open sky,
And every star in heaven was a witness from on high.
None dared to ope a friendly door, or lift a neighbour's latch,
Or shelter by a warm hearthstone beneath the homely thatch.

Beside the lake in sweet Glenveigh, his tall white castle stands,
With battlement and tower high, fresh from the mason's hands.
It's built of ruined hearth stones. Its cement is bitter tears.
It's a monument of infamy to all the future years.
He is written childless, for of his blood no heir
Shall inherit land or lordship from cruel John Adair.

His cognizance the bloody hand has a wild meaning now.
It is pointing up for vengeance to Cain-like mark his brow.
It speaks of frantic hands that clasped the side posts of the door.
Pale lips that kissed the threshold they would cross, oh, never more.
The scattered stones of many homes, the desolated farms,
Shall mark with deeper red the hand upon his coat of arms.
The silver birches of Glenveigh when stirred by summer air
Shall whisper of the curse that hangs o'er cruel John Adair.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: John Adair (Oh Nelly come away with me..)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 06:13 PM

Wikipedia has an article about John George Adair.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: John Adair (Oh Nelly come away with me..)
From: GUEST,N. Leonard
Date: 08 Mar 14 - 11:55 AM

I heard a poem from an old man with a long memory at Stradbally, Co. Laois, Ireland, in the 1970s- I can remember but one verse that runs as follows:

'A ploughman poor his grandsire was,
His mother was a Trench-
Supported by the Warburtons
That lived at Garryhinch.'

I also remember the mention of that the poem contained some form of a 'curse' 'upon you, John Adair.'

The implication of the first line was that Adair was descended from   an 'assignation' between two persons of very different classes, and that, despite his humble origins, Adair proved most fitting for the role of a   cruel and tyrant landlord.

I cannot vouch for the truth of the implication but, just let's say that Adair must have earned the execration that has been committed to verse- and that has endured in that medium.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: John Adair (Oh Nelly come away with me..)
From: GUEST,Felipa
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 08:13 AM

recording by Rita Gallagher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LdDMLYn2Kw