Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore

Subject: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,Olga
Date: 29 Oct 02 - 04:03 PM

And even more thanks to all others who can send lyrics to another irish song 'Fields of Greenmore'. Are there other records of this song exept Dervish's?

Subject: Lyr Add: HILLS OF GREENMORE (from Steeleye Span)
From: bill kennedy
Date: 29 Oct 02 - 04:11 PM

it's in the DT as HILLS OF GREENMORE

Steeleye Span recorded this song for their first album, Hark! The Village Wait.

Lyrics
One fine winter's morn my horn I did blow
To the green fields of Keady for hours we did go
We gathered our dogs and we circled around
For none loves the sport better than the boys in the Dell.


And when we arrived they were all standing there
We set off for the fields, boys, in search of a hare
We didn't get far till someone gave the cheer
Over high hills and valleys the wee puss did steer

As we flew o'er the hills, 'twas a beautiful sight
There was dogs black and yellow, there was dogs black and bright
Now she took the black bank for to try them once more
Oh it was her last look o'er the Hills of Greenmore.

In a field of wheat stubble this pussy die lie
And Rory and Charwer they did pass her by
And there we stood at the top of the brae
We heard the last words that this wee puss did say:

``No more o'er the green fields of Keady I'll roam
To trip through the fields, boys, in sport and in fun
Or hear the long horn that your toner does play
Or home to my den by the clear light of day.''

You may blame ol' Mac Mahon for killing the hare
For he's at his ol' capers this many's a year
On Saturday and Sunday he never gives o'er
With a pack of strange dogs round the Hills of Greenmore.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Joe Offer
Date: 29 Oct 02 - 05:24 PM

Also see Hare's Lament, and the crosslinked threads listed above.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Declan
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 05:52 AM

Olga,

Yes there are pre-Dervish versions of this song. I just can't remember who recorded them. When I think of the song now I hear Kathy Jordan singing it. One clue is that Keady is mentioned, which is in South Armagh (Dervish are from Sligo). Singers that come from that area include Len Graham and Tommy Makem, but I don't know for definite if either of them recorded the song.

I also have a vague notion that there's a connection between Andy Irvine and this song, but I might be way of the mark here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,tamlin
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 06:44 AM

Dick Gaughan has a version of this song on Kirst o Gold which also mentions Keady. Anne Briggs' version is set in Kilda.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Wolfgang
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 09:36 AM

May I add Al O'Donnell to the list

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 11:15 AM

Declan, maybe you're thinging of Andy Irvine singing The Creggan White Hare? There's a Creggan in Armagh, tho not sure if this is the same one.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Declan
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 11:27 AM

Big Tim,

You're spot on, and I think it is set in the South Armagh area, but its a different song. There's another one that was sung by Geordie Hanna that starts "On Yonder Hill there stands a Hare", which doesn't try to preach about this type of activity, but leaves you in no doubt as to where the songwriter's sympathy's lie.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 12:22 PM

Martin Simpson does a great version, can't remember which CD it is on though. Should be able to check on the "Topic" site.
JohnB

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 30 Oct 02 - 01:15 PM

The place in question in the song is Granemore near Keady in Mid-Armagh.
The Steel Eye Span certainly have a good "up beat" version of the song , pity they got the placename wrong. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Big Tim
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 03:16 AM

Granemore is a townland about three miles directly east of Keady. It is hilly country, rising to about 160m, c.500 feet. The Granemore River runs through. It seems certain that this is the location of the song. There is no townland called Greenmore in Northern Ireland. As Terry Woods, who later found fame in the Pogues, was a member of Steeleye Span at the time of their recording of the song, I blame him for getting the name wrong!

Re "Creggan Hare", there are townlands of this name in Counties Armagh, [London]derry, and Tyrone, plus a "Cregan" in Antrim.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:06 AM

The "Cregan white Hare" is the

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Ballyholme
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:11 AM

Add the (Irish) Country Four to the list of those who have recorded this fine song. They included it on the album they made for Topic in the late 60s/early 70s.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,Ard Mhacha
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:14 AM

"The Cregan White Hare" is the Tyrone Cregan, a verse of the song would indicate this, as all of the placenames are in County Tyrone,

"And some jolly sportsmen came down from Pomeroy,
Dungannon and Cookstown and likewise the Moy,
With their pedigree hounds which they brought from afar,
And they landed in Cregan in their fine motor-cars".

The late Sean Dynes did a fine recording thirty years ago. Ard Mhacha.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Brían
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 08:42 AM

I have a cassette tape By "Kevin McElroy and Friends" with this song, though the recording is probably out of print. Kevin says he first heard Sean Tyrell of Galway singing it.

It is in Robin Morton's Folksongs Sung in Ulster. It was written by an old woman in Ballylisk near Tandragee as a parody of a song called THE HILLS OF GLENSWILLY. It appears to have been sung to a variant of SWEET BETSY FROM PIKE.

Brían

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: fogie
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 09:00 AM

Rory and Charwer is it ? I've been trying to work that out since I bought the LP. I thought it was bonny wee charmer- presumably one or two dogs?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Big Tim
Date: 31 Oct 02 - 10:34 AM

Brian: it's amazing how things go round. The Hills of Glenswilly was written by Michael McGinley (of Glenswilly)who also wrote the Irish Civil War song "The Drumboe Martyrs", which we have discussed at some length on Mudcat in the past.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,cassidy
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 08:30 PM

well I may appear foolish but can someone tell me
why the May-Down boys and there dogs are spoken badly of and what they are balming coyle for?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 09:03 PM

From the version (found here in the DT)on Dick Gaughan's Kist O' Gold album (which he credits his learning of it to Tommy Sands), the song is from the point of view of the hunted hare.

The "Boys from Maydown" loved the sport of hunting more than any other and their dogs were hard "to get clear of".

Coyle was apparently an avid weekend rabbit hunter ("From Friday to Sunday he'll never give o'er"), but the dying hare's curse was on McMahon for "bringing Coyle here".

Subject: Lyr Add: GRANEMORE HARE (from Dick Gaughan)
From: Cluin
Date: 18 Feb 03 - 10:00 PM

By the way, there are a few little mistakes in the DT version (that I linked to above) which credits its source as Dick Gaughan's Kist O' Gold. According to the lyrics enclosed with the album, the proper lyrics are (with corrections bolded):


GRANEMORE HARE

Last Saturday morning, the horns they did blow
To the green hills round Tassagh the huntsmen did go
To meet the bold sportsmen from around Keady town
For none loved the sport better than the boys from Maydown

And when we arrived they were all standing there
So we took to the green fields in search of the hare
We had not gone far when someone gave a cheer
Over high hills and valleys this "puss" she did steer

With our dogs all abreast and that big mountain hare
And the sweet sounding music, it rang through the air
Straight for the Black Bank for to try them once more
And it was her last sight round the Hills of Granemore

And as they trailed on to where the "puss", she did lie
She sprang to her feet for to bid them goodbye
Their music, it ceased and her cry we could hear
Saying, "Cursed be the ones brought you Maydown dogs here"

"Last night as I lay content in the glen
It was little I thought about dogs or of men
But when going home at the clear break of day
I could hear the long notes that young Toner did play"

"And it being so early I stopped for a while
It was little I thought they were going to meet Coyle
If I had known that I'd have lain near the town
Or tried to get clear of those dogs from Maydown"

"And now I am dying, the sport is all done
No more through the green fields round Keady I'll run
Or feed in the glen on the cold winter's night
Nor go home to my den when it's breaking daylight"

"My curse on MacMahon for bringing Coyle here
He's been at his old capers for many's the year
From Friday to Sunday, he'll never give o'er
With a pack of strange dogs round the Hills of Granemore"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Apr 12 - 12:31 AM

Regarding this character called Coyle, arbitrarily introduced towards the end whose role in the affair remains unclear:-

surely the result of a misunderstanding of

"I blame old MacMahon for bringing coil here"

~~ 'coil' in the old sense of "tumult, hubbub, noise, fuss: [as in Hamlet III i 67] ('mortal coil') the toil and trouble of human life" [Chambers Dictionary]?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,PFT63
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 02:02 PM

The Hare as allegory for the (Republican) tradition in the North of Ireland, being chased and subdued and ultimately slain by Coyle, who is perhaps standing as an allegory for a Traitor from within that Republican community?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,PFT63
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 02:10 PM

We have a variation of the tune on Johnny McEvoy's old vinyl album "Leaves in the Wind" (Hawk Records?) but I believe the tune is called "The Hills of Greymore" on that album. I have been a fan of this song for years. Really glad to see that other folks are, as well.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 02:26 PM

And McEvoy's version speaks of Maydown and Keady and the nearby "green fields (hills?) of Tassagh' in County Armagh. From Keady, you can take the Granemore Road east to Tassagh. In fact, if you go to Google Maps, you can find some ground-level photo images of the Granemore Road as it passes through Tassagh, and these photos contain images of green hilly country along the side of the Road that "could" be the scene of some Hare coursing I suppose!!! Youtube has a video of the tune that depicts photos of dogs (some of them muzzled, some not) as they chase the Hare through the fields. But that particular video is listed under the spelling of "Greenmore" I believe.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 02:47 PM

'Greenmore' & 'Granemore' seem to co-exist as alternative versions.

But nobody seems to have taken me up on my suggestion that 'Coyle', an arbitrarily named character who doesn't appear till the last verse, is surely a mondegreen for 'coil' in the sense of 'trouble or discord'.

I blame old lame MacMahon for bringing [the equivalent of trouble & discord] here,
He's been at his old capers for many's the year

seems to me a perfectly acceptable rendering of the aurality of the lyric.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,John Moulden
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 02:58 PM

This song is locally attributed to Owen McMahon of Tassagh and he names himself in it. Coyle was a person rather than a personification of any kind of struggle, Republican or concerning life. There is no evidence that this song, or the Creggan White Hare, about which it is also said, is any kind of allegory for a fugitive Republican. Both these songs describe exactly the sort of hunt that was, in the past, conducted by local men, each on foot with his own dog, over their local ground. Though the hare was hunted, there were seldom reports of them being caught. The relationship between these men, their dogs, their locality and the quarry was quite complicated emotionally, it involved exercise, skill and affection rather than bloodlust.
I am not a supporter of blood 'sports' but the past is another country and my aim is understanding and the accurate interpretation of songs, which are one of the few records in which we can spot the feelings and aspirations of ordinary people in theor own words.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 03:10 PM

But did Owen McMahon publish it in print himself, with the name 'Coyle' printed as such - in which case who was he and why was his being 'brought here' prove so fatal to the narrating hare? -

- or was it orally transmitted originally, before seeing print? - in which case I stick to my contention that 'coil', simply meaning trouble, no kind of 'personification', might possibly have been aurally and orally misinterpreted.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MartinRyan
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 03:14 PM

Thank you, GUEST,John Moulden. As ever, there is a tendency to forget that - sometimes - a cucumber is just a cucumber.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MartinRyan
Date: 15 Jul 12 - 03:15 PM

p.s. Of course, the condition is often seasonal! ;>)>

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 10:14 AM

I looked up coil in my unabridged dictionary. It does indeed give 'trouble or tumult' as a meaning, and then it cites one quote from Shakespeare. It also calls it 'archaic & dialect.'

There's no reason to suppose that the author of the song had ever heard 'coil' used in this odd sense. Personally, I think that Hamlet was referring to the human body when he said, "...shuffle off this mortal coil."

As for the republican allegory idea - the heck with it. You could take any song in the world and declare that it's an allegory for some political struggle. Let's see:

Bicyle Built for Two - 19th C. presidential candidate seeks v.p.

Once in Love with Amy - "amy' is obviously friendship in disguise. Song is a thinly-veiled enconium to gay and lesbian liberation.

:)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 11:08 AM

"Archaic & dialect", eh, leeneia. Wonder where.   Parts of Ireland, maybe. & when became "archaic" ~~ later than McMahon wrote, perhaps? I have always taken the line to mean "I blame McMahon for bringing all this trouble." Someone called "Coyle" who suddenly makes an appearance in the song & doesn't do anything has never made sense to me. Why would they need him? What was his precise function? Why couldn't they have just hunted the hare without this outside visitor having to be sent for by McMahon?

Sorry; but "Coyle" seems to me to make absolutely no sense; never has.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Les from Hull
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 11:20 AM

I always assumed that Coyle was the name of a dog. But I've been wrong before.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 16 Jul 12 - 12:05 PM

coil 2 (koil)
n.
A disturbance; a fuss.
[Origin unknown.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
.,,.,.
American online dictionary. No suggestion of archaism or dialectism ['updated 2009', NB]. Just defined as a normal word.

Most familiar, of course, as occurring in probably the most famous & familiar of all Shax's speeches {"To be or ..."}. But seems a perfectly usable word to me.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 05:06 AM

Only just noticed this in leneeia's post above:

Personally, I think that Hamlet was referring to the human body when he said, "...shuffle off this mortal coil."

Did you find 'coil' defined as 'body' anywhere,leneeia? If so, you didn't say where. If not, what are your 'personal' grounds for 'believing' this somewhat mnemonic & eccentric interpretation?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 11:11 AM

"mnemonic"? Exactly! ;>)>

Noh mower to be said, really.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 11:53 AM

Despite which...

The "mortal coil" is the soul's wrapping i.e. the body. If Shakespeare had a second level of meaning in his head, it was probably Satanic.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST,Ballyholme
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 12:16 PM

I remember that (quite a few years ago) an acquaintance from County Armagh whose surname is Coyle, told me that the Coyle mentioned in the song was, in fact, a family member of his.

I didn't query the grounds for this belief but it was obviously something he believed to be true.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 12:42 PM

No, Martin. Nice try, but that is not what Will meant whatever.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Noreen
Date: 17 Jul 12 - 06:13 PM

Did Will tell you that personally, M?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 12:58 AM

There are such things as study and authorities and annotations, Noreen. There are such things as interpretations that make sense and as ones that are so convolutedly fanciful as to be absurd.

Did Galileo tell you personally that the earth revolves around the sun?

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 01:22 AM

MIchael - Coyle also appears a verse or two before:
"And it being so early I stopped for a while
It was little I thought they were going to meet Coyle
If I had known that I'd have lain near the town
Or tried to get clear of those dogs from Maydown"

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 01:25 AM

Last verse:
"My curse on MacMahon for bringing Coyle here
He's been at his old capers for many's the year
From Friday to Sunday, he'll never give o'er
With a pack of strange dogs round the Hills of Granemore.

Seems he was a person.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 02:01 AM

Not necessarily, Seaumus. My interpretation of 'coil' [assuming the word misheard from oral rendition] would equally well fit meaning of your additional verse ["they were going to run into difficulties, or find trouble"] - which was why they 'stopped for a while'. Otherwise why should their meeting a person surprise the narrator ["little I thought"]. If Coyle a person, who, or what his function? Why should their meeting him, particularly, have so baleful an effect for the fox? The 'he' who has 'been at his capers' could equally refer to MacMahon, whom the victim-fox is cursing for the fatal effect on him of those perpetual 'capers' of his.

~M~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 03:29 AM

Apologise for misspelling your name ~ typo rather than ignorance!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 04:51 AM

There are such things as study and authorities and annotations,...

Indeed. Can you point me towards one (preferably non-American) that supports your interpretation of "shuffle off this mortal coil"? I used to know this text only too well and can't recall ever hearing it glossed in that way . I recognise the double sense of "coil" alright but remain sceptical of its application in the phrase.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 05:23 AM

Martin ~~

mortal coil; fuss of life
Penguin Shakespeare, edited G B Harrison, 1937

mortal coil bustle and turmoil of this mortal life
The RSC Shakespeare COMPLETE WORKS, ed Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 2007

COIL, sub. bustle, tumult. Much Ado, iii.3.99; Ham, iii,1,67
Glossary to Oxford Complete Works, ed W J Craig, 1905

Must in honesty concede, rather to my surprise, that the Signet pb edition of 1963, ed Edward Hubler, seems to recognise both our interpretations ~~

coil (1) turmoil (2) a ring of rope (here the flesh encircling the soul) ---

--- But then that is a American one, which you imply, Martin, that you would in any event regard as less reliable!

Those all the annotated editions I can lay my hands on around the house at the moment.

Best

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 05:26 AM

Sorry a 'small' command appears to have remained unclosed above. Here it is again ~~

Martin ~~

mortal coil; fuss of life
Penguin Shakespeare, edited G B Harrison, 1937

mortal coil bustle and turmoil of this mortal life
The RSC Shakespeare COMPLETE WORKS, ed Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 2007

COIL, sub. bustle, tumult. Much Ado, iii.3.99; Ham, iii,1,67
Glossary to Oxford Complete Works, ed W J Craig, 1905

Must in honesty concede, rather to my surprise, that the Signet pb edition of 1963, ed Edward Hubler, seems to recognise both our interpretations ~~

coil (1) turmoil (2) a ring of rope (here the flesh encircling the soul) ---

--- But then that is a American one, which you imply, Martin, that you would in any event regard as less reliable!

Those all the annotated editions I can lay my hands on around the house at the moment.

Best

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 05:34 AM

Thanks for that.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 09:28 AM

See also ~~

‪Mortal coil‬
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mortal coil is a poetic term that means the troubles of daily life and the strife and suffering of the world. It is used in the sense of a burden to be carried or abandoned, most famously in the phrase "shuffle[d] off this mortal coil" from Shakespeare's Hamlet. (For more context of the phrase, see To be, or not to be.)

Derivation
Derived from 16th Century English, "coil" refers to tumults or troubles. Used idiomatically, the phrase means "the bustle and turmoil of this mortal life." [1] "Coil" has an unusual etymological history. It was coined repeatedly; at one time people used it as a verb to mean "to cull," "to thrash," "to lay in rings or spirals," "to turn," "to mound hay" and "to stir." As a noun it has meant "a selection," "a spiral," "the breech of a gun," "a mound of hay", "a pen for hens", and "noisy disturbance, fuss, ado."[1] It is in this last sense, which became popular in the 16th century, that Shakespeare used the word.
"Mortal coil"—along with "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," "to sleep, perchance to dream" and "ay, there's the rub"—is part of Hamlet's famous "To be or not to be" speech...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Fields of Greenmore
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jul 12 - 04:25 PM

Can we abandon conjecture and look at what singers and collectors have said about this song?

It has been collected three times from traditional singers, in 1952 for the BBC, from Jimmy McKee, Armagh (Folktrax); from Frank Mills, Tyrone by Robin Morton in about 1968 (published in Folk Songs Sung in Ulster); and in 1980 by Keith Summers & others from Patsy Flynn at Magheraveely, Fermanagh (as the Grangemore Hare)(issued in The Hardy Sons of Dan); in addition, the version recorded by The Irish Country Four may have some local authority, though the notes give no provenance.

I don't have access to the McKee version but Peter Kennedy and the BBC Catalogue have this to say:

From the Folktrax Catalogue
GRANEMORE HARE, THE - "One fine winter's morning our hunt they did blow" comp by Pat Toner of Tullyglish, Keady and Owen Mc Mahon of Tassagh, Co Armagh, fellow huntsmen in Keady & milltown Hunt Club - tune: "Villikens" - Hunt took place at Granemore Rock, Hayes Public House and featured a black hare - ROUD#2883 - MORTON FSSU 1970 #42 from Frank Mills - Cf ARTHUR BOND'S MARE - HARE OF KILGRAIN - OLD GREY MARE - WHITE HARE OF CREGGAN -- Jimmy McKEE rec by PK, Armagh 10/7/52: RPL 18409/ FTX-431 - Frank MILLS, Co Tyrone: MERCIER IRL-12 1970 - STEELEYE SPAN: B & C CREST-22 1970 & CS-12 1973 with Gerry Conway on drums, titled "Greenmore Hare" - IRISH COUNTRY FOUR: TOPIC 12-TS-209 1971 - KESTY: MODELLO 1979 / FTX-240 "Hills of Granemore"- LIVING TRADITION LTCD-001 1994 DERVISH (Group from Sligo) "The Hills of Greenmore" (from Whirling Discs WHRL-001 1993)

From the BBC Index:

GRANEMORE HARE, The

Singer:Jimmy McKee                                                                 4,10    18409
Armagh.   
10.7.52 (P.K - S.O'B.)

'One fine winter's morning, our horns they did blow …'

Song written by Owen McMahon of Tassagh to the well-known air 'Villikens'.   A hunting song typical of many such which are still composed in the district.   Some verses in it are sung by the hare!   Cf. 'The White Hare of Creggan' (18532) which uses the same air.   Cf. also Sam Henry Collection, No, 12: 'The Hare of Kilgain' (from Antrim).

Robin Morton, in Folk Songs Sung in Ulster gives no information about authorship but Coyle is mentioned twice:

Verse 7
It being so early, I stopped for a while
It was little I thought they were going to meet Coyle

Verse 9
I blame McMahon for bringing Coyle here
He's been at the same caper for many a long year
Every Saturday and Sunday he never gived o'er
With a pack of strange dogs round the Hills of Granemore.

My copy of Robin's book records some variations which I evidently heard in my misspent Belfast youth.

The version in The Hardy sons of Dan, has only a verse similar to the one immediately above; Coyle is mentioned only once.

In addition, Tom Moore and Allan Hampton give the song (mentioning Coyle twice) in their privately compiled book of hunting songs from county Down (Tom states that he heard it in the fities) and Seán McElgun gives a text, equally clearly from tradition but without any details in the second volume of his Songs of the Winding Erne (Hills of Graymore)- it names Coyle only once. Both give 'Coyle' with a capital letter, obviously, from the versions they heard, believing that it is a surname.

The surname Coyle is attested by Edward MacLysaght 'The Surnames of Ireland' and Robert Bell 'The book of Ulster Surnames' who associate it most frequently with Donegal, Derry, Tyrone and Cavan. It derives from an Irish sept name Mac Gilla Chomhghaill which was anglicised MacIlhoyle, MacCoyle and Coyle.

I think that conjecture and interpretation of songs is absolutely allowable but can see no justification in fact, context or syntax for the 'mortal coil' interpretation - but go ahead if you like, though for me the idea is no more than fantasy.

There is an old saying in Ulster which seems appropriate "Shall we let the hare sit?"