Lyr Add: Ballinderry

Subject: Lyr Add: BALLINDERRY (from Mary O'Hara)
From: Alice
Date: 18 Sep 99 - 09:11 PM

The lyrics and notes in the DT do not include these verses and notes from Mary O'Hara's "A Song For Ireland" as well as a few different spellings.

BALLINDERRY

'Tis pretty to be in Ballinderry,
'Tis pretty to be in Aghalee,
'Tis prettier to be on bonny Ram's Island
Trysting under an ivy tree.
Ochone, O! ochone! ochone! ochone!

Oft times I sailed to bonny Ram's Island,
Side by side with Phelim, my diamond,
And often he'd court me, and I'd be coy -
In my heart how I loved him, my darling boy.
Ochone, O! ochone! ochone! ochone!

"I'm going," he said, "from bonny Ram's Island
Out and across the stormy sea,
And if in your heart you love me, Mary,
Open your arms at last to me."
Ochone, O! ochone! ochone! ochone!

I opened my arms, how well he loved me!
I opened my arms and took him to me;
And under the shade of the moaning mast,
We kissed our first and we kissed our last.
Ochone, O! ochone! ochone! ochone!

I wish I were the weeping willow,
I'd wander along by the lonesome sea,
And cry to him over the cruel sea;
Ah, Phelim my diamond, Come home to me.
Ochone, O! ochone! ochone! ochone!

'Twas pretty to be in Ballinderry
But now it's as sad as sad can be,
For the ship that sailed with Phelim, my diamond,
Is sunk forever beneath the sea.
Ochone, O! ochone! ochone! ochone!
^^

quote - "Ballinderry is in County Antrim and Ram's Island is on Lough Neagh, the largest lake in the British Isles, extending over 153 square miles. The island is the largest on the lake and contains the ruins of an ancient round tower. "

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Conán
Date: 19 Sep 99 - 08:47 PM

"Phelim my diamond". I have ever only hear this as "Phelimy Diamond." "Phelimy" is the original Gaelic name and "Diamond" is a surname. one of the more illustrious bearers of same was Harry Diamond, Nationalist M.P. for Queen's University of Belfast when such undemocratic electoral structures existed. Conán

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Alice
Date: 20 Sep 99 - 10:41 AM

Thank you, Conán. That sheds more light on what was also the most common way I have heard and read it in the U.S. (Clancy Brother's version and what is here in the DT) as "Phelim my DEMON". The lyrics above I transcribed the way it is written in O'Hara's book, "A Song For Ireland".

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Alice
Date: 20 Sep 99 - 10:43 AM

Conán would the pronunciation of Diamond lead people to think they are hearing demon, accounting for the change? Does it sound like Phelimy DEE-mond or Phelimy DI-mond?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 20 Sep 99 - 12:57 PM

The version Mary O'Hara offers is the lovely one sung by Robert Cinnamond. I'll check which recording it's on, and post the info later.

Sandy

Subject: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: GUEST,Philippa
Date: 14 Apr 03 - 08:48 AM

Well, I learned the song from Tommy Maken's singing and I always sang "diamond" not "demon".
There's a fiddle and banjo player in these parts named Dermy Diamond, a gem (and that's how his surname is pronounced)

The usual verses are given in Bunting. "It is pretty to be in Ballinderry ...under an Ivy tree...
Oh! that I was in little Ram's Island ...with Phelimy Dialmond...we would make the whole Island ring." Edward Bunting published his work in 1840, but I am looking at D. O'Sullivan & M. Ó Súilleabháin's edition of "Bunting's Ancient Music of Ireland", Cork University Press, 1983; which is based on Bunting's original manuscripts.

"Both air and words were collected from Dr Crawford of Lisburn, in 1808. Another version of the words, from Mrs. Houston, was p[rinted in the Jpurnal of the Irish Folk song Society, vol. V (1907), p.37. It runs as follows:

O, it's purty to be in the bonny Church Island,
Nobody there but Phelim my diamond;
Phelim would whistle and I would sing, Until we would make Church Island to ring.

Phelimy, Phelimy, why did you leave me?
Sure I could bake, I could sew, I could spin.
Phelimy, Phelimy, why did you leave me?
I'll tell the priest on you Phelimy, Phil.

O. lonely I wander on bonny Church Island
Far, far away from Phelimy diamond
The birds may whistle a merry tune,
But sorrowful May brought woeful June.

Och, cold in the ground my Phelim's lying,
Over his grave I am sobbing, I'm sighing
To leave him his love would be a sin,
So take off the sod and lay me in."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Mr Happy
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 08:18 PM

My good fiend Belfast Jim signs this.

He does the chorus as 'Arkun,arkun,Arkun,arkun'.

Does anyone know what 'Arkun' or 'Ochone' means?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 08:58 PM

"ochone" = "alas", near enough.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Julia
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 09:16 PM

Bunting says this Ancient Music of Ireland (1840);
(Ballinderry) has been a favorite performance from time immemorial with the peasantry of the counties of Down and Antrim, the words being sung by one person while the rest of the party chant the cronan (chorus) in consonance.....There are numerous other sets of words sung to Ballinderry; they are all of a very rustic character and uniformly refer to localities along the rivers Bann and Lagan such as

'T is pretty to be in Ballinderry,
'T is pretty to be in Magheralin etc

'T is pretty to be in Ballinderry,
'T is pretty to be at the Cash of Toome etc

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ballinderry
From: Felipa
Date: 26 Jun 22 - 03:10 PM

Some of the recordings presently available on youtube:

sung by Anne Byrne
sung by Davy Hammond