Lyr Req: Dominick Noone (Edward Flanagan)

Subject: Lyr Req: Dominick Noone - Peter Magennis ballad
From: GUEST,Guest, Alan W
Date: 09 Mar 13 - 09:37 PM

Hello

I am looking for the lyrics of a ballad contained within Peter Magennis's book - The Ribbon Informer; A Tale of Lough Erne.

The book was originally published in 1874 and is hard to come by.

In the book "Hidden Fermanagh", Cyril Maguire printed 2 verses of the song which are as follows:

A stranger he came in friendships name
With the youth of the valley to dwell –
The songs he sung, the jests he flung
The tales he was wont to tell
A favourite made him with old and young –
They loved the stranger well

But sometimes a moody mind had he,
Till vanished his gloom away
And often he walked to the mountains at eve,
Nor returned till the break of day
When the old surmised in his bosom deep
Some solemn secret lay



Also, the location of a library housing this book would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Alan W

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dominick Noone - Peter Magennis ballad
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Mar 13 - 09:45 PM

I did'nt mention in my first post just now....but the ballad is about Dominick Noone....
A 'Ribbon Man' who was murdered in the Boho area of Fermanagh in 1826.

This is another verse which may also belong to the same ballad:

Within the mountain nature made,
A deep and dismal cave,
That suited well the murderers said,
To be a traitor's grave,
They flung the lifeless body below -
A groan they thought it gave.

verse taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noon%27s_Hole


Alan W

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dominick Noone - Peter Magennis ballad
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 10 Mar 13 - 12:18 PM

email me privately and I can send jpgs - it's a couple of pages. jmoul81075ATaol.com

Subject: Lyr Add: DOMINICK NOONE (Edward Flanagan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Mar 13 - 12:44 AM

From The Poems of the Late Edward Flanagan, "The Poet of the Moy", edited by Peter Magennis (Enniskillen: Wm. Trimble, Printer, 1884), page 54:


DOMINICK NOONE.
A Ballad.

[I remember the unfortunate subject of this ballad. All the elements that contribute to make a story romantic combine and develop themselves in his case. He was a stranger in the locality in which I was born; he was young, an ardent lover, a wanderer at night in the cabins among the mountains, impassioned in regard to his love to one particular female, deceived in a friend in whom he confided to further his amour, and when betrayed in his hopes and disappointed in his expectations—in hatred to that friend who had deceived him—he resolved on revenge, became an informer against Ribbonmen, and succeeded in transporting the man whom he conceived had betrayed him. Beyond this he became a general informer against others, banished many from their homes, and for personal safety was himself placed in the prison or Enniskillen. In the meantime a secret conspiracy was formed against him, and by the devices of a female whose brother or lover was banished on his account, he was decoyed from the prison, and in female apparel made his escape to the mountains. There he lingered among the cabins, was deceived by hollow smiles and false promises, and on pretence of being married to the female who had conveyed him from prison, allured to a distance at night, murdered, and his remains flung into a deep cavern, which probably will bear his name ("Noone's Hole") for ever. He was a native of Connaught, and in the year 1826 he lost his life. None of his murderers were ever punished, and a secrecy, a mystery, and an awe yet surrounds the commission of that dark deed, while a thrill of the bosom accompanies its narration in the locality where it occurred to this day.]

1. Remote in the West in a valley green,
    In the glowing month of June,
Amid mountains wild that enchantingly smil'd
    In the rays of the sun or moon,
In a peasant's cot—in a beautiful spot
    Resided Dominick Noone.

2. A stranger he came in friendship's name,
    With the youth of the valley to dwell—
The songs he sung, the jests he flung,
    The tales he was wont to tell
A favourite made him with old and young—
    They loved the stranger well.

3. But sometimes a moody mind had he,
    Till vanished his gloom away,
And often he walked to the mountains at eve,
    Nor returned till the break of day;
When the old surmised in his bosom deep
    Some solemn secret lay.

4. One eve on the valley the sunbeams shone,
    The songsters sang in the bowers,
A peasant left when the dews came down
    On the fields and the fragrant flowers,
And meditating on his way,
    He walked in the moonlit hours.

5. The morn arose and a shadow fell
    On that valley so green and bright,
And young men gay in prison lay
    Before the close of the night,
And Dominick Noone was a hated man,
    And a traitor deemed outright.

6. 'Tis Summer time, and all nature smiles,
    In a mantle of glory and light,
The fields with daisies expanding wide,
    The woods with blossoms are white;
The earth yields a bed for calm repose,
    And heaven a canopy bright.

7. Away with the bird in the shady grove,
    With the bee in the heather bell,
On fugitive men in mountain and glen
    The night with its slumbers fell:
They fled for fear of Dominick Noone
    And the felon's chain and cell.

8. Then cottage and hamlet forsaken were,
    Save by women and children young;
No more in the valley at even and morn,
    The voice of merriment rung,
For over each home where joy had shone,
    A mantle of gloom was flung.

9. And when the moon with her silver light,
    Illumed the vales and trees,
An armed band ran over the land,
    The youth of the valley to seize.
And many were found and in prison bound,
    And some sent over the seas.

10. Then fear and hate in each bosom beat,
    And sorrow was all the tune,
And cheeks grew pale at the sound of one name,
    And that was " Dominick Noone."
And men conspired to murder him
    One night beneath the moon.

11. Alas I that the earth has wickedness,
    Are bosoms with anguish sore,
Alas! that the earth has wickedness,
    'Tis time it should all be o'er.
When men from the past shall wisdom learn,
    And conscience accuse no more 1

12. And now for fear of the life so dear,
    (To the guiltiest still a boon,)
In prison he lay though far away
    Was the heart of Dominick Noone.
He loved a maiden—and dear to love
    Is the rosy month of June.

13. Eve's shadows fell on his prison cell—
    A maiden entered there,
And she arrayed him in garments fine—
    He looked like that maiden fair;
In her father's cot, at midnight hour,
    He breathed the mountain air.

14. 'Tie Summer time—the fields are green,
    The meadows bright with flowers,
And Dominick Noone with his bosom's queen
    Enjoys enraptured hours:
They walk beside the winding stream,
    They talk in shades and bowers

15. O beautiful and delusive Love,
    Entangling human will,
Awaking in the sternest breast
    Emotions tender still;
Thy hopes are bright as rainbow light,
    Thou dreamest not of ill!

16. And now it is sworn a man shall die,
    When waneth the reigning moon,
That his bones in a cavern deep shall he,
    And that man is Dominick Noone:
For many to save, said Expediency,
    One cannot perish too soon.

17. Upon the eve of a sunny day
    Went forth a smiling band,
O'er mountains wild they took their way,
    For so the murderers plann'd,
And Dominick Noone and that maiden gay
    Are walking hand in hand.

18. To Hymen's altar journeys he,
    His spirit knows no gloom,
But pallid Death his bride shall be,
    His nuptial bed the tomb—
The charms that awake his ecstacy,
    For other heart shall bloom.

19. In a hollow vale in that mountain wild,
    Where shadows are wont to lie,
They take from his side the promised bride,
    And tell him his end is nigh.
Doth the parent think when prattles the child
    The death it yet may die?

20. With his foes he fought till vigour fled,
    In that unequal fight,
Beneath descending blows he bled—
    No chance had he in flight:
His face was pale—his wounds were red—
    He died about midnight.

21. A widow lived in a cottage near,
    Upon the mountain's side,
She heard the shrieks of the murdered man,
    And his groans before he died:
When she looked out the moon looked dim,
    And no one she espied.

22. Within the mountain nature made
    A deep and dismal cave,
That suited well, the murderers said,
    To be a traitor's grave;
They flung the lifeless body below—
    A groan they thought it gave.

23. Then shed the stars an accusing ray,
    They feared the face of the moon,
They hastened from the scene away,
    And sighed for the sunny noon—
Between them and their God it lay,
    The death of Dominick Noone.

27th Decr., 1879.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dominick Noone - Peter Magennis ballad
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Mar 13 - 01:00 AM

If you click here, and then enter your location, you may be able to find copies of The Poems of the Late Edward Flanagan in a library near you.

Likewise, click here for The Ribbon Informer.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dominick Noone (Edward Flanagan)
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Mar 13 - 01:05 PM

That's great

Thanks very much Jim and John for your repsonses

A.W