The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #38526   Message #1592093
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
27-Oct-05 - 07:55 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Who was Brennan on the Moor?
Subject: RE: Tune Req: Brennan On The Moor (Variant)
"Brennan on the Moor," as posted by Jimmy C, is from the broadsides printed between 1840-1860 in Ireland, Scotland and England, but lacks the last four verses.

In the county Tipperary, in the place they call Clonmore,
Willie Brennan and his comrade that day did suffer sore;
He lay amongst the fern which was thick upon the field,
And nine wounds he did receive before that he did yield.

Willie Brennan and his comrade, knowing they were betrayed,
He with the mounted cavalry a noble battle made;
He lost his foremost finger, which was shot off by a ball,
So Brennan and his comrade were taken after all.

So they were taken prisoners, in irons they were bound,
And conveyed to Clonmel gaol, strong walls did them surround;
They were tried and found guilty, the judge made this reply,
'For robbing on the king's highway, you're both condemmed to die'.

Farewell unto my wife, and to my children three,
Likewise my aged father, he shed many tears for me;
And to my aged mother, who tore her grey locks and cried,
Saying 'I wish Willie Brennan, in your cradle you had died.'

In verse 1, "and on the Lilvart mountains," not Kilworth, is printed in the broadsides.
Bodleian Library, Harding B.11(443), printed by J, Harkness, Preston, c. 1840-1866.

The last verse, quoted by Jimmy C, does not appear in the broadsides at the Bodleian Library (12 copies).
Bodley search