The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77631   Message #2282225
Posted By: GUEST,crazy little woman
07-Mar-08 - 01:09 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Cliffs of Dooneen. WHERE?
Subject: RE: Origins: Cliffs of Dooneen. WHERE?
One version, at least, of the words

You may travel far from your own native home
Far away o'er the mountains far away o'er the foam
But of all the fine places that I've ever been
There's none can compare with the cliffs of dooneen
It's a nice place to be on a fine summer's day
Watching all the wild flowers that ne'er do decay
Oh the hare and the pheasant are plain to be seen
Making homes for their young round the cliffs of dooneen
Take a view o'er the mountain fine sites you'll see there
Yes in a high rocky mountain in the west coast of clair
Oh the towns of kilkee and kilrush can be seen
From the high rocky slopes round the cliffs of dooneen
So fare thee well to dooneen fare thee well for a while
And althoug we are parted by the ragin sea wild
Once again I will wander with my irish colleen
Round the high rocky slopes of the cliffs of dooneen


Okay, it says:

1.'Oh the towns of kilkee and kilrush can be seen
From the high rocky slopes round the cliffs of dooneen'

That's pretty clear. Got to have Kilkee and Kilrush nearby.

But:

2.'Take a view o'er the mountain fine sites you'll see there
Yes in a high rocky mountain in the west coast of clair'

This is problematical. How is one to see over a mountain unless in an airplane? And why are we suddenly 'in' a mountain when we were just at the cliffs?

And just because we look over a high rocky mountain that's on the west coast of Clair doesn't mean we are actually in Clair.

3. I don't think that's how you spell Clare.

4. 'Once again I will wander with my irish colleen
Round the high rocky slopes of the cliffs of dooneen'

I don't think we can make it illegal because of censorship issues, but I think anybody that uses the word 'colleen' in lyrics should have to pay fee to the Starving Poets Aid Society. (Same applies to anybody who rhymes mountain with fountain.)