The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5598   Message #32241
Posted By: Joe Offer
10-Jul-98 - 03:56 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Youghal Harbour + Road to Youghal
Subject: RE: Lyrics Wanted: Youghal Harbour / Road to ~
From another thread: Thread #57817   Message #911294
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
16-Mar-03 - 12:45 PM
Thread Name: Req: a couple of songs and a tune!
Subject: RE: Req: a couple of songs and a tune!

The song is usually called Youghal Harbour, and that isn't its tune, I'm afraid. In fact, Healy printed it as My Sunday Morning Maiden; evidently Vin changed the title, hence the confusion with the Road to Youghal reel. The story varies rather among traditional and broadside versions. I don't have the Healy book, but Colm O Lochlainn (Irish Street Ballads, 1939) prints a set which, though rather different in text (taken from a broadside), has virtually the same tune, albeit in a rhythm different from the Garbutt arrangement. It's associated, in slightly different forms, with a number of other songs, too, such as The Streets of Derry, The Galway Shawl and Boulavogue.

X:1
T:Youghal Harbour
S:Colm O Lochlainn
B:Irish Street Ballads, 1939
N:Roud 2734
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:3/4
K:F
F|F C F2 A c|f e d2 (fd)|
c A F2 (GA)|G F D3 (D/E/)|F C F2 (Ac)|
f e d2 (fd)|c A (A3/2G/) F G|F F F3 c|
c A c2 d e|f e d2 f d|c A F2 G A|
G F D3 E|F C F2 A c|
f e d2 f d|c A (A3/2G/) F G|F F F3|]


There are a number of broadside editions at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

Youghall Harbour

Number 2734 in the Roud Folk Song Index.



Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:

Youghall Harbour

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a beautiful girl as he walks toward Youghall. He asks a kiss; she refuses, explaining that her former lover has driven her from Youghall. She will have no more to do with men. He says his intentions are honorable
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (O'Conor); the "Answers to Youghall Harbour" date to before 1825
KEYWORDS: courting beauty rejection
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
SHenry H503, p. 273, "Youghall Harbour" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, p. 95, "Yougall Harbor" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 198-199, "Youghall Harbour" (1 text, listed as a translation by Samuel Ferguson)

Roud #2734
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Answer to Youghal Harbour"
cf. "Foot and Mouth Disease" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Youghal Harbour
Yougal Harbour
NOTES [202 words]: The versions of Youghall Harbour are so varied that I think they should be considered at least two ballads. [Though Roud lumps them. - RBW] Examples of "the other Youghall Harbors":
OLochlainn 8 and Bodleian, Harding B 28(20), "Answer to Youghall Harbour," W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(2180), 2806 b.9(227), 2806 b.11(205), Harding B 25(2128), Firth b.27(11/12) View 1 of 2 [partly illegible], 2806 c.15(163), 2806 c.15(17), 2806 b.11(204), Harding B 19(3), "Youghal Harbour" ("As I roved out on a summer's morning") in which Nancy/Mary of Cappoquin has the singer's baby ["A darling baby for you I am rearing"] and is deserted by him twice. [This is in the Index as "Answer to Youghal Harbour."]
Bodleian, Harding B 25(2126), "Answer to Youghall Harbour," Angus (Newcastle), 1774-1825 in which the singer considers leaving "the fair maid of Caperqueen" at the altar;
Bodleian, Harding B 28(20), "Youghall Harbour" ("In Youghall harbour, on a summer's morning"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(4287), "Youghall Harbour" in which the singer is led to the altar and is sometimes exposed as a rake. This may just be an extension of "Answer to Youghall Harbour." - BS
File: HHH503

Youghall Harbour (II)

DESCRIPTION: The singer meets a girl like "the Queen of May." He seduces her after going "to a director" when she insists on "performance." But he values "neither Priest nor Deacon nor yet yon fair maid of Capperquin" and gains "the maiden flower of this silly female"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 28(20))
KEYWORDS: seduction virginity rake
FOUND IN: Ireland
Roud #2734
RECORDINGS:
Robert Cinnamond, "Youghal Harbour" (on IRRCinnamond03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 28(20), "Youghall Harbour" ("In Youghall harbour, on a summer's morning"), W. Armstrong (Liverpool), 1820-1824; also Harding B 11(4287), "Youghall Harbour"
NOTES [77 words]: Listening to a traditional version on IRRCinnamond03, which is very close to broadside Bodleian Harding B 28(20) "Youghall Harbour," finally convinced me that this should be yet another "Youghall Hartbour" ballad (linked, as it is, by Roud to two others). This seems a much more likely prequel than "Youghall Harbour(I)" to "Answer to Youghal Harbour"; note that Armstrong printed both "Youghall Harbour (II)" and "Answer to Youghall Harbour" on the same sheet. - BS
File: RcYoHa02

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2020 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.