Some Back ground on the song "The Rocks of Bawn".

I write as a distant relation to the master in this song in the hope of shedding some light on the history of this famous ballad which has been distorted and watered down over the years.

John Sweeney grew up in famine times. He was born in a small cottage in Glan in the parish of Mullahoran Co Cavan near Granard town. At sixteen he was sent to work for neighbouring farmers. The wages back in those days were three pound a half year.

Sweeney secured himself a job with a woman called "The Widow Bawn Reilly" from the townland of Bawn also in the parish of Mullahoran. The widow of Bawn outlived three husbands in her day. She was enowned as a hard task master and expected poor Sweeney to plough the fields of Bawn renowned for the huge rocks which liberally covered the fields hence the name the Rocks of Bawn .
Those Rocks goes back to the ice age and peppered the fields like icebergs, most of them barely above the surface.

No wonder the poor man made up songs about it. John Sweeney could neither read nor write but regularly spoke in rhyme. A family called the Seerys of Crevy wrote down the songs for him. It is said that most of his songs were composed in Boylan's Forge in the townland of Cullaboy also in the parish of Mullahoran.

In those days the forge was the favourite meeting place for local people. Sweeney composed another famous ballad . "The Creevy Grey Mare".
The townland of Creevy lies in North Longford half a mile from Bawn. This ballad was written in the same style as The Rocks of Bawn and contains several local references. One line refers specifically to Boylan's Forge;

"God bless and protect Peter Boylan
my sock or my coulter he'd mend
for he was a boy that could shoe her
and leave her quite straight on her limbs."

The ballad relates to a mare which Sweeney obviously used to plough in the area. The socks and coulter refer to parts of the plough. He relates how his master brought the mare to the fair in Bunlahy, Granard and she was bought by "Reynolds the odd jobber" for the Queen's Army and its military needs.
Sweeney laments the loss of his mare and reflects on the torture she will suffer in battle.
"But if I was a horseman who rode her
of corn I'd give her her fill
and with my gun and bayonet
it's Ryenolds the auld jobber I'd kill."

He rounds off the ballad on a hopeful note –
"But if she comes back to Ireland
and lands on Erin's green shore
I'll send for my master to buy her
and I'll plough her in Creevy once more."
The Sweeney family descendants are living in Mullahoran to this day. Sweeney himself joined the British army along with his plough horses. It's uncertain whether he died or deserted. Some rumours said he went to live in America. One doggrel verse popular in the bars of new york many years ago contained a reference to Sweeney:

"There were charming maids from Cavan
as graceful as the fawn
and poor old gallant Sweeney
sang the Rocks of Bawn."