The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #32382   Message #427740
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
28-Mar-01 - 02:17 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Mary's Reply (Mountains of Mourne sequel)
Subject: RE: Mountains of Mourne - Sequel?
There's more to Percy French than fun and jollity. Here's one of his that isn't in the DT that I could see:

Long, long ago in the woods of Gortnamona,
I thought the birds were singing in the blackthorn tree;
But oh! it was my heart that was ringing, ringing, ringing,
With the joy that you were bringing, O my love, to me.

Long, long ago in the woods of Gortnamona,
I thought the wind was sighing round the blackthorn tree;
But oh! it was the banshee that was crying, crying, crying,
And I knew my love was dying far across the sea.

Now if you go through the woods of Gortnamona,
You hear the raindrops creeping through the blackthorn tree.
But oh! it is the tears that I am weeping, weping, weeping,
For the loved one that is sleeping far away from me.

He wrote it after his wife Etta died in childbirth. He never put a tune to it - maybe he knew he'd never be able to sing it if he did. But a long time later, Brendan O'Dowda got a friend Philip Green to give it a tune, and recorded it.