Lyr/Tune Add: Farewell to Ireland (Ewan MacColl)

Subject: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 01:21 AM

Here's another Ewan MacColl song. He wrote quite a few, didn't he. Regards, John

Farewell to Ireland
(Ewan MacColl)

Farewell to the groves of Shillelagh and Shamrock
Farewell to the girls of all Ireland all round;
May their hearts be as merry as ever I would wish them
When I'm away from my own native land.

My mother is old and my father defeated
By hard work and poverty; it grieves my heart sore

To see them so patient with all hope departed
And now I must leave them for a foreign shore.

Then farewell to the green hills and lakes of Killarney
Farewell to the white strand where green billows roll;
Farewell to.Blackwater and to wild Connemara,
The pinched face of charity and life on the dole.

Then it's pack up your bag and consider no longer,
The boat's at the quay so it's shoulder your load.
Turn the key in the door, take a last look at Ireland,
The land's for the bullock and the men for the road.

The pastures are fenced and the woods are protected
The pheasant and partridge they nest in the field;
While away, 'cross the ocean, go journeyman tailors
And fiddlers who flaked out the old mountain reels.

Young boys and old men and fathers of children
In search of employment from Ireland must go;
Abandoned, disinherited, the landless of Ireland
From Kerry, Cork and Leitrim and the County Mayo.

Then it's pack up your bag and consider no longer,
The boat's at the quay, so it's shoulder your load.
Turn the key in the door, take a last look at Ireland,
The land's for the bullock and the men for the road.

---

Click to play

Subject: RE: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: Martin Ryan
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 07:06 AM

This is a reworking of "The Green Fields of Canada/America", of which there are a few versions in the DT. Try HERE .

Regards

Subject: RE: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 01:20 PM

Very interesting, John. I have never seen this before. Thank you for providing it. Likewise to Alison, though I'm not a Midi-man. I assume it is the same melody as "Greenfields of Canada/America" as mentioned by Martin above and, best known, as sung by Paddy Tunney.

All the best,
Dan

Subject: RE: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 02:18 PM

Dan

Coincidentally, I was talking to Paddy Tunney earlier this year about McColl. They were clearly good friends - the odds are it was from Paddy he got it.

Regards

Subject: RE: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: John in Brisbane
Date: 06 Dec 99 - 07:45 PM

Dan and Martin, this song is published in MacColl's 'A Freeborn Man and Other Radio Ballads' - Oak Publications. I'm sure that one of our contributors will have a copy - I would have bet my left one that Ewan wrote it though. If I'm wrong please send me the name of a good doctor. Regards, John

Subject: RE: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 07 Dec 99 - 03:30 AM

John

I didn't mean to suggest otherwise! I meant that McColl would have heard the original song from Tunney and adapted it.
He did some brilliant adaptations along those lines - I recorded his "Ten young women and one young man" which used the air of "The Spanish Lady". More than that - by using it for this particular purpose he rightly slotted it into a set of songs about women set to that air.

Regards

Subject: RE: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 03:23 AM

I wish I'd said that!

MacColl recorded 'Green Fields' from Paddy Tunney and included it in 'The Song Carriers'.
He reworked it for the Philip Donnelan film, 'The Irishman', for which he wrote 'Tunnel Tigers' and and a re-working of several others including 'Rocks of Bawn' and 'Indeed I Would (Jolly Tinker)'.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: LYR/TUNE ADD: Farewell To Ireland
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Dec 06 - 04:16 AM

Damn, somebody removed the piece of spam which preceeded my message - which makes my 'I wish I'd said that' comment somewhat confusing.
Didn't know you'd recorded '10 Y W Martin' - on what? - I'd like to hear it sometime.
Jim Carroll