Origins: The Heathery Hills (Brigid Tunney)

Subject: RE: Origins: The Heathery Hills (Brigid Tunney)
From: GUEST,Mary
Date: 02 Apr 23 - 08:08 PM

This poem was sung to piano accompaniment on evening of 1st April 23 on RTE radio lyric FM-in The Purple Vespertine hosted by Ellen Cranitch An album Pianophony was played where pianist was Ryan Molloy and singer Shauna Mullins This can be listened to in playback on RTE online It is a very beautiful piece of music and song. I searched to find origin of lyric and appreciate finding answer here-- Thank you I enjoyed reading the poem and learning the correct words for song I had listened to and knowing who the writer is--

Subject: RE: Origins: The Heathery Hills (Brigid Tunney)
From: GUEST,AR
Date: 11 Nov 16 - 12:33 PM

Thanks for the tip, GUEST,DK.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Heathery Hills (Brigid Tunney)
From: GUEST,DK
Date: 11 Nov 16 - 12:13 AM

There are a few songs/poems titled 'An Cnoicín Fraoigh,' I wonder if one of them was Carbery's inspiration.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Heathery Hills (Brigid Tunney)
From: GUEST,AR
Date: 10 Nov 16 - 07:32 PM

Wow, maeve - thank you so much! This is exactly the kind of info, and clarification on lyrics, that I was seeking.

Subject: RE: Origins: The Heathery Hills (Brigid Tunney)
From: maeve
Date: 10 Nov 16 - 06:34 PM

It appears to have started life as a poem:

Found here:

"The Heathery Hill" by Ethna Carbery [aka Mrs. Seumus MacManus, Anna Johnston] (1866-1902)
From: The Four Winds of Eirinn: Poems by Ethna Carbery. (Anna MacManus.), Complete Edition, Edited by Seumas MacManus. Dublin, Ireland: M. H. Gill and Son, Ltd. 1906. p. 26.

Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom


THE HEATHERY HILL.

I MIND it well, and I see it yet
In a halo of sunset glory,
When I climbed knee-deep through the gorse and fern
To keep my tryst with Rory.
Like a singing-flame the little red lark
Poured the joy of its heart above me;
My grief, my grief! for the Heathery Hill
And the lad that used to love me.

The blue mist eerily drifted down,
Till the kine were lost in shadow,
'Twas time for Rory to come this way
By boreen and dewy meadow.
Then, then a song, that was sweeter far
Than thrush's or lark's, rose near me–
Oh! I'm thinking long for the Heathery Hill
And the voice of my lad to cheer me.

I miss my mother the livelong day–
Sure I was my mother's treasure;
I cry in dreams for my father's fields,
And the city holds no pleasure:
I'd part its ease and its golden store,
Though the wise folk may deride me,
For a summer eve on the Heathery Hill
And the lad o' my heart beside me.

Subject: Origins: The Heathery Hills (Brigid Tunney)
From: GUEST,AR
Date: 10 Nov 16 - 06:02 PM

Does anybody have any more information at all about this song 'The Heathery Hills', which Brigid Tunney can be heard singing on the recent Topic Records release 'The Flax in Bloom'?

Apparently she learnt it from her sister, who learnt it in the city of Glasgow.

It's NOT the same song as 'The Heathery Hills of Yarrow', and I don't believe that it exists on the Mudcat DT.

The first verse runs

'I mind it well, I see it yet
In a halo of sunset glory
When I climbed knee deep in gorse and fern
To keep my tryst with Rory'

Thanks a lot.