Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim

Subject: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Big Tim
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 03:38 PM

Does anybody have the words of a song called "The Sweet County Antrim"? Herbert Hughes refers to it in "Songs of Uladh" (1904) but gives no information about it. He and Joseph Campbell used the tune for the "Blue Hills of Antrim".

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From:
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 08:38 PM

There's a song called Born in Carrickfergus with that phrase in it.

Also, that phrase is in another song, Green Fields of Amerikay, talking about Irish settlers in Wisconsin.

That's all I have found so far.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 16 Feb 04 - 08:51 PM

This is the one, Big Tim. Either the reference to Co Antrim is in a verse missing from the DT version, or "County Wicklow" and "Erin girls all around" are in some versions rendered as "sweet Co Antrim" and "County Down. I think it's the latter. In fact I think the song exists in versions that differ far more widely than that.

(I found it in the DT under "Green fields of America" which is, I think, the usual title.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Big Tim
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 05:38 AM

Peter, that's a different tune, and the lyric structure is different too. This is the first verse of Blue Hills of Antrim,

The blue hills of Antrim, I see in my dreams,
The high hills of Antrim, the glens and the streams,
In sunlight and shadow, in weal and in woe,
The sweet vision haunts me wherever I go.

????????????

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 11:13 AM

Interesting coincidence then, because "Green Fields of America" is certainly known also as "Sweet County Antrim." Have you got a reference for the tune of the song you want - ie the tune for "Blue Hills of Antrim"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Big Tim
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 02:23 PM

I've known "Blue Hills", words and tune, since childhood - it was the party piece of one of our neighbours. The melody is a very beautiful one.

Hughes says in "Songs of Uladh" that the tune for the two songs is the same: so...I was just wondering about the lyrics for "Sweet County" to see how they compare with "Blue Hills". Hope that's clear!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 17 Feb 04 - 05:28 PM

Yes, I'm following that! I was just wondering if the tune exists somewhere, in dots or audio.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Big Tim
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 04:47 AM

Peter, the music is given in Songs of Uladh, standard musical notation: I could email it to you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The Sweet County Antrim
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 18 Feb 04 - 06:44 AM

OK, Tim, I'll send a PM. I'm now interested in both songs, having lived for some years in said county!

Subject: Lyr Add: THE SWEET TOWN OF ANTHONY
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 25 Jan 12 - 04:27 PM

Lyrics and notes copied from Come and I Will Sing You: A Newfoundland Songbook edited by Genevieve Lehr (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1985), page 179:


THE SWEET TOWN OF ANTHONY
[Collected from] Edward Ward, Southeast Bight, 1976

1. In the sweet town of Anthony, as I passed it by,
In a neat little cottage I chanced for to spy,
Where the water runs clearly and everything nice
Makes me think on old Erin in sweet Paradise—

2. I mounted on horseback; nine miles I did ride,
'Til I came to a cottage near the side of a road.
I said to myself, "In some strange country,
Perhaps there's some bonny lass and she may fancy me."

3. I lighted from horseback, went in and sot down.
This beautiful damsel I viewed her all 'round.
Her cheeks blushed like roses and her lips a pale red,
And her eyes shone like diamonds as they rolled in her head.

4. I says, "My pretty fair one, will you come along with me?
We'll both ride to New Ross and married we'll be.
Your friends and relations they won't on us frown,
For to live at Blackwater near fair London town."

5. "Young man," she made answer, and this she did say:
" 'Til there's further acquaintance between you and me,
You know it's heart-aching and a trouble on my mind
For to live at Blackwater, leave my true love behind."

6. New Ross is a bonny place, I heard people say,
Where the small birds do whistle and the nightingale play.
Where the small birds do whistle and the nightingale sing,
I will sing my love's praises and then go away.


Edward learned this song from his father when he was very young. It is found in Irish folksong collections as "The Sweet County Antrim." Helen Creighton collected a version in Nova Scotia with the name "By Kells Waters"; in that particular version of the song, Anthony is Antrim, New Ross is Bally Bay, and Blackwater is Kells Waters.

Anthony is pronounced "Antny."