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User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Geoff Wallis Where is 'Laugh and Half-Daft' (Wales)? (27) RE: Where is 'Laugh and Half-Daft' (Wales)? 30 Jul 07


Here you go.

Cran's Seán Corcoran learnt the song from one of his two great mentors, Mary Ann Carolan from County Louth, and definitely reckons that its title is a 'surreal and mischievous re-working' of Llandaff.


I've come from Laugh-an-Half-Daft and half o'er the Welsh mountains
Where the leeks and the violets and the nanny-goats dwell.
I've come here in search of a lovely young maiden
And where she has gone to I'm sure I can't tell.

She's the pride of her gender, her waist small and slender,
Her hair is magenta and she squints with one eye.
She talks like a parson, she sings like a nightingale,
And if I don't find her I'm sure I will die.

Chorus (i.e. the next four lines)

So, I'll weep and I'll wander o'rer hills and o'er mountains
In search of my Jinny - O, where can she be?
I'll weep and I'll wander o'rer hills and o'er mountains
In search of my Jinny - O, where can she be?

Her home and her family are highly respected,
Her mother milks cows on a three-legged stool.
Her father's a farmer, her aunt is a lady,
Her uncle's a rogue and her brother's a fool.

I courted sweet Jenny, I told her I loved her,
We were to be married upon a May morn,
But there came a young soldier from the Royal Artillery
And on the next morning my Jenny was gone.

Chorus

O, say have you seen her? To you I'll describe her:
She wears a red petticoat and a hat on her head,
She moves when she's walking, she speaks when she's talking,
Her handkerchief's lettered O, P, X, Y, Z.

I searched through the mountains, I searched the valleys,
I climbed Carrauntoohill, I looked up in the air,
I searched holes and corners, I read through the papers,
I looked up the chimney, but found her nowhere.

So, farewell to you Jenny, you've gone with your soldier,
I never will find you wherever you be.
No more will I wander o'er hills and o'er mountains,
Farewell to you Jenny wherever you be.

Chorus


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