The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #71328   Message #4171235
Posted By: GUEST,RJM
01-May-23 - 11:01 AM
Thread Name: Origins: What is a Bantry Girl?
Subject: RE: Origins: What is a Bantry Girl?
according to jimmy crowley the song relates to county wexford , it mentions moneyhore which is in wexford, there is a bantry in wexford, Moneyhore is a townland about two miles SW of Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford. In his "Enniscorthy: History and Heritage" (1998) Micheál Tóibín says, "That fine ballad 'The Bantry Girls' Lament' calls to mind the celebrated Fair of Moneyhore. The passing of a century has brought to an end these old village fairs and lent to them a romantic glow which will linger on in popular memory long after the dates of the gatherings and locations of the [fair] greens are forgotten".

(Re duplication of place names, there are dozens of Dublins in the US! See "Sweet Liberty" by Josephy O' Connor).