Lyr Req: man smitten w/girl lookin out Dutch

Subject: man smitten w/girl lookin out Dutch door
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:13 PM

Was asked if I could help someone try to find this old song--a favorite of the person's now deceased grandfather who learned it/knew it when growing up in Newfoundland in the 1930's....

possibly old Irish song

might have been called "The Half Door" which would refer to a Dutch door. (I think.)

premise of song per family's recollection: a man smitten by a beautiful girl who he spies looking out over the half door of her cottage

Any ideas would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Mary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: man smitten w/girl lookin out Dutch
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 07 Sep 00 - 08:52 PM

Sung by Margaret Barry, on an LP, 'The Blarnery Stone', Prestige Irish 35001. Ewan MacColl's notes on this 'romantic parlor-ballad' say the song is attributed to Shaun O'Nolan. Barry's tune is "The Band o' Shearers', which is probably in DT.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: man smitten w/girl lookin out Dutch
From: SingsIrish Songs
Date: 08 Sep 00 - 05:57 AM

THANKS A MILLION Bruce! So the title, "The Half Door" is correct...wonderful. I'll pass the info on!

Mary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: man smitten w/girl lookin out Dutch
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 11 Sep 02 - 09:08 AM

"The Half-Door" performed by Margaret Barry and Michael Gorman, is included in the anthology "As Me and My Love Sat Courting: Songs of Love, Courtship and Marriage," Topic CD 665, 1999. It is also on another anthology: "Irish Heritage," Compose CD 9521, 2000. And it is performed by the Newfoundland band Figgy Duff on their eponymous album.

I transcribed this much from a sound sample at CDNOW:

... sir," she says,
"Come in and close the half door."

She'd a board placed upon her knee.
It was full of potatoes I could see.
Every one of them care (?) for me.
She peeled before my eyes there.

She looked at me with a roguish smile.
She said "Sit down and rest a while
And you're welcome back to Erin's isle.
We never close the half-door.

She says "Now Sean you'll have to stay
Until I wet(?) a cup of tea...."

I see there's an Irish pub in Hartford, CT called The Half Door.

There is also an album called "Takin' Down the Half Door" by Celtic Soul.

A song (or tune?) called "Gossip through the Half Door" is included in various artists' collection "Feet of Flames and Other Irish Favorites."

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Go here: Lyr Add: THE HALF DOOR--JoeClone, 4-Nov-2009.