Lyr Req: The Castle of Dromore

Subject: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Anna
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 08:41 AM

The castle of Dromor

A phais-de ban a stor (sorry I can't write the accents)

What does it mean? Thanks Anna

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: Barry T
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 11:56 AM

...and how do you pronounce it? Phonetically as it appears?

I've been using a version of the lyrics that doesn't include this phrase, but I'd like to dazzle my Celtic friends with this five word vocabulary.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Anna
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 02:32 PM

I'm Italian. I have no idea of the pronunciation! I write you the whole sentence:

Yet peace is in its lofty halls, a phàis-de ban a stòr

(the original accents are the contrary of those I wrote, from right to left)

Anna

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: Martin _Ryan
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 05:02 PM

"páiste" is Gaelic (Irish) for "child".
"bán" means white/fair-haired.
"a stór" means "darling.

Heving said all that - I don't have the song to hand to check!

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Rory
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 06:34 PM

"I've been using a version of the lyrics that doesn't include this phrase, but I'd like to dazzle my Celtic friends with this five word vocabulary"

BarryT, you'll do more than dazzle them, you'll positively blind five of them who are not Irish. Rory

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From:
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 08:04 PM

Rory;I can't find my lyrics to the Castle of Dromore but but as you guessed the phrase A phais-de ban a stor (Excuse the lack of proper accents if you try to look this phrase up) is Irish Gaelic. It is pronounced au fayshde Baun Au store. Please note that this is a very approximate pronunciation as what little Irish i have is quite rusty. But you'll knock their proverbial socks of if it is as close as I think it is, Neil

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: alison
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 09:56 PM

The lyrics are herein an earlier thread, (check Alice's post 27/11/98 12.07).... no gaelige though.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: alison
Date: 12 Feb 00 - 09:59 PM

also a different version here in the database.

The tune can be found at Mudcat MIDIs

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Rory
Date: 13 Feb 00 - 04:44 PM

Neil, thanks for the clarification, but I didn't guess. Alison, as far as I know there were never any Irish lyrics to this tune, unless some well-meaning revivalist concocted some. Rory

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Trudy
Date: 14 Feb 00 - 04:04 PM

Which Dromore is it ? Co. Down or Co. Tyrone ? Trudy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 15 Feb 00 - 06:52 AM

There's at least one set of Irish lyrics to the air, alright. Now if I could remember the title...

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: Barry T
Date: 15 Feb 00 - 10:41 AM

The castle referred to in the song is in County Clare. Here is all I've been able to find on the web about it. (Curiosity has sent me on a cybersearch for a photograph of the ruins, but I've been unsuccessful so far.)

For your research entertainment, I have done a midi of the tune here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Trudy
Date: 15 Feb 00 - 02:59 PM

I have gone to "here", Barry, but there is no indication that this is the Dromore of the song. On what evidence do you base your assertion ? Trudy

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Barry T
Date: 15 Feb 00 - 03:00 PM

A few more notes about the castle (from County Clare tourist information)...

Dromore Castle is in a beautiful situation overlooking the lake, and it is at its best at sunset. It was built in the 16th Century and was later extended and repaired by Tadhg O' Brien in the 1600's. An inscription over the door reads: This castle was built by Teige second sonne of Connor, third Earl of Thomond and by Slaney O' Brien, wife of the said Teige Anno D. Guide Available during high season.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: Barry T
Date: 15 Feb 00 - 08:50 PM

I can't confirm the accuracy of my statement, Trudy. I found reference to the connection a couple of months ago on a Heritage Ireland site, but I have no way of knowing if the writer's research (if any) was accurate.

I just surfed for about 15 minutes and found references to four castles by this name. The one in the movie High Spirits, which is located in Limerick near Kildimo, is probably not the one in the song, as it is a relatively new castle dating from 1870.

I think the reference in the lyrics to the Blackwater (River?) might be a good clue. That would suggest the Kenmare location in Kerry, would it not?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Trudy
Date: 16 Feb 00 - 04:32 PM

Barry, There's also a Blackwater in Tyrone. T.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,GUEST Tina
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 03:11 PM

Hello

I have an even more gaelic request on "The Castle of Dromore". An older acquaintance of mine remembers his father singing the entire song to him as a child IN GAELIC. Dad has long since passed on and now my friend is looking for that gaelic version. Has anyone come across it? Also my happy band of local musicians and gaelic students would love to murder their way through it if those words can be found.

Thanks!

Tina

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 03:34 PM

Harold Boulton wrote the song in English, set to a traditional tune called My Wife is Sick. Claims as to the venerable age of the song Castle of Dromore, then, are wishful thinking; especially those based on the occurrence of "Dromore" in the title!

This revived thread contains little information compared to a later one, Help: Castle of Dromore; origins and location, which among other things, contains the Irish Gaelic text as translated into that language from Boulton's song by Douglas Hyde.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 04:09 PM

It's on an LP called ' The Corries' or 'The Best of the Corries'.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: masato sakurai
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 08:26 PM

Harold Boulton says that the tune is "My Wife is Sick" (on the contents page of his Songs of the Four Nations) and that it is "Old Irish Air" (on the music page). How old was it? No song with that title ("My Wife Is Sick") is found in Fleischmann's Sources of Irish Traditional Music c. 1600-1855 (Garland).

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The castle of Dromor
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 21 Jan 03 - 09:37 PM

A.P. Graves' Irish Song Book (1894) also names the tune My Wife is Sick; it appears in Stanford-Petrie (no.509) as My Wife is sick and like to die, oh dear what shall I do, but without information as to provenance. I haven't managed to find any more specific information; the entry at The Fiddler's Companion, for instance, seems to be based on hearsay from all over the place and is probably less accurate than what we already have (mostly in the other thread).