The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102747   Message #2085063
Posted By: GUEST,Jim Carroll
23-Jun-07 - 04:32 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Thief/Highwayman?
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Thief/Highwayman?
MacColl's version, which he said he got from a printed Scottish text, was called Alan Tyne of Harrow; this is the one he introduced into the revival.
Frank adapted that version slightly, using the Joyce title, Valentine O'Hara; he also used the tune, which I suspect was MacColl's own. Many of MacColl's tunes were adaptations of traditional ones.
I have heard other revival singers refer to it as Ballanyne O'Hara.
Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song) gives a tune (completely different to MacColl's) and two lines only.
"A bold young man named Valentine O'Hara,
Whose friends resided near the hills of Tara".
As far as I know there are no other traditional versions; Joyce's is the only one referred to in the Roud index (unless there are others in the latest version which I have not installed yet.
Jim Carroll