Lyr Req: Road to Ballynure? / Ballynure Ballad

Subject: Lyr Req: The Road to Ballynure
From: GUEST,Tim
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 05:01 AM

Can anyone help me in getting hold of the lyrics to this song, which was recorded by th McPeake Family?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Road to Ballynure
From: weerover
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 10:52 AM

Is this "A Ballynure Ballad"? If so, I have the words someplace, and will post if nobody else does.

wr

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Road to Ballynure
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 11:10 AM

You might want to have a look at A BALLYNURE BALLAD in the database here. No source is acknowledged, but it is described as "Scots"; a version appears in the Greig-Duncan collection (vol.VII, which I don't have). On the other hand, the text is very close indeed to that in Hughes' Irish Country Songs (I, 1906, 32-6), and so is the tune (though for some reason it seems to have been transcribed with one-too-many flats in the key signature), so perhaps that is the uncredited source.

I don't know how close it may be to the set the McPeakes had.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Road to Ballynure
From: belfast
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 11:22 AM

Going by the words of the first couple of verses this is the one the McPeakes sing. At least it's the one I heard Francie McPeake singing recently. I have been told that Hughes collected it from Francie's grandfather.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Road to Ballynure
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 22 Nov 03 - 11:54 AM

Hughes gave no information, unfortunately, beyond "Fragment of an old Ballad. County Antrim".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Road to Ballynure
From: GUEST,Tim
Date: 24 Nov 03 - 10:01 AM

Thanks to all for the response. The lyrics in the database are indeed the same as the Mcpeake version (as far as I can hear ).