The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #78835 Message #1423507
Posted By: Lighter
28-Feb-05 - 10:02 PM
Thread Name: Irish versions of Child Ballads
Subject: RE: Irish versions of Child Ballads
David Hammond also recorded a very fine version of "The Wraggle Taggle Gypsies" - possibly under a different title - around 1960 on a Tradition album called "I Am the Wee Falorie Man" - I think.
A wonderful singer, much unappreciated.
It was the leading Irish ballad collector Hugh Shields who observed that Child ballads are rather uncommon in Irish tradition.
"Hughie Graeme" entered the Irish repertoire in the '60s or '70s, it would appear. The usual text and tune seem to have come straight from Ewan MacColl's Scottish version (itself mostly from Greig, IIRC), but the name "Londonderry" in the original chorus is replaced by the phrase "dandle derry."