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Origins: Bantry Girl's Lament

DigiTrad:
THE BANTRY GIRLS LAMENT
THE BANTRY GIRL'S LAMENT (2)


Related threads:
(origins) Origins: What is a Bantry Girl? (27)
Folklore: re.bantry girl's lament - Moneymore?? (13)
req:You Are Come of Gentle Blood/Lesson in Heroism (11)
Chords Req: The Bantry Girl's Lament (10)


GUEST 12 Aug 05 - 06:26 PM
GUEST,Dickmac 12 Aug 05 - 06:36 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 12 Aug 05 - 08:36 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 12 Aug 05 - 08:40 PM
Dickmac 13 Aug 05 - 07:06 AM
GUEST 15 Aug 05 - 12:10 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 15 Aug 05 - 02:26 PM
MartinRyan 15 Aug 05 - 02:46 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 15 Aug 05 - 03:27 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 15 Aug 05 - 03:37 PM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 15 Aug 05 - 03:46 PM
ard mhacha 15 Aug 05 - 04:26 PM
GUEST,Lighter at work 15 Aug 05 - 05:50 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 15 Aug 05 - 07:56 PM
vectis 15 Aug 05 - 08:13 PM
Malcolm Douglas 15 Aug 05 - 09:46 PM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 16 Aug 05 - 01:36 AM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 16 Aug 05 - 06:10 AM
GUEST,Martin Ryan 16 Aug 05 - 06:54 AM
GUEST,Lighter 16 Aug 05 - 08:54 AM
belfast 16 Aug 05 - 09:07 AM
ard mhacha 16 Aug 05 - 01:14 PM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 16 Aug 05 - 02:55 PM
ard mhacha 16 Aug 05 - 03:07 PM
Lighter 16 Aug 05 - 03:33 PM
ard mhacha 16 Aug 05 - 04:51 PM
Malcolm Douglas 16 Aug 05 - 06:10 PM
MartinRyan 16 Aug 05 - 07:14 PM
MartinRyan 16 Aug 05 - 07:16 PM
Lighter 16 Aug 05 - 07:32 PM
Malcolm Douglas 16 Aug 05 - 08:22 PM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 17 Aug 05 - 02:52 AM
ard mhacha 17 Aug 05 - 05:31 AM
GUEST,HughM 17 Aug 05 - 08:15 AM
MartinRyan 17 Aug 05 - 09:22 AM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 17 Aug 05 - 09:23 AM
GUEST,Lighter at work 17 Aug 05 - 09:38 AM
GUEST,Lighter at work 17 Aug 05 - 09:55 AM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim (on new pc!) 17 Aug 05 - 12:24 PM
MartinRyan 17 Aug 05 - 12:41 PM
ard mhacha 17 Aug 05 - 01:10 PM
Lighter 17 Aug 05 - 02:14 PM
ard mhacha 17 Aug 05 - 02:25 PM
Q (Frank Staplin) 17 Aug 05 - 02:36 PM
ard mhacha 17 Aug 05 - 03:05 PM
GUEST,tonyo 08 Jan 06 - 11:35 AM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 08 Jan 06 - 01:43 PM
MARINER 08 Jan 06 - 05:53 PM
GUEST,Guest, Big Tim 09 Jan 06 - 06:01 AM
GUEST,HughM 10 Jan 06 - 02:59 PM
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Subject: Origins: Bantry Girls Lament
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 06:26 PM

Can anyone help with the background to this Irish song that I found on an Eleanor Shanley CD where she duets with Eddie Reader.
In particular what was the war with Spain that is referred to
Thanks


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Subject: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Dickmac
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 06:36 PM

Can anyone help with the background to this Irish song.In particular the reference "Gone to fight the King of Spain" - what war ?
Thanks


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls Lament
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 08:36 PM

The British fought in Spain during the Peninsular Wars (Napoleonic era wars). This seems to have spawned lots of laments.
There are versions in the DT.
See thread 44455: Patriot game but see posts
Thread 71328: Bantry


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Aug 05 - 08:40 PM

See thread 83745, running now. Bantry
This duplicate thread should be deleted.
    Threads consolidated.
    -Joe Offer-


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Dickmac
Date: 13 Aug 05 - 07:06 AM

Thanks
I realise I've posted this twice.
how do I delete ?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 12:10 PM

Dick Swain after hearing me sing this had mentioned it comes from the 'War of Jenkin's Ear'.

Copied from:
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The War of Jenkins' Ear was a conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1742.

Under the 1729 Treaty of Seville, the British had agreed not to trade with the Spanish colonies. To verify the treaty, the Spanish were permitted to board British vessels in Spanish waters. After one such incident in 1731, Robert Jenkins, captain of the ship Rebecca, claimed that the Spanish coast guard had severed his ear, and in 1738 exhibited it to the House of Commons - hence the name of the conflict. The British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declared war on October 23, 1739. Google has plenty more on this.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 02:26 PM

The lyrics come from a modern poem by P. J. Kavanagh, and are set to an older tune. Kananagh edited the "Oxford Book of Shorter Poems" and, in addition to being a poet, is a columnist and broadcaster.
There are no prior records of the lyrics, but they are vaguely reminiscent of a couple of songs from the time of the Peninsular War.
Without documentation, Mudcat DT (Numachi) mentions the Peninsular War as the inspiration for the song. The author of the lyrics is not credited.

The Connolly's describe it as a song about an Irish young man who went to fight in the Spanish Civil War (1930s).

Google, of course, has many unsupported statements by various recorders of the song. The recording that spread the song most effectively probably was the one by the Clancy Brothers, but it had been recorded earlier in 1978. Only a few of those who recorded the tune give credit for the lyrics.   

Guitar tabs are here: Bantry Girl


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: MartinRyan
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 02:46 PM

Sorry, Q - which lyrics?

Regards


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girl's Lament
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 03:27 PM

MartinRyan, the lyrics to "Bantry Girl's Lament" are in the DT. I have not seen the book in which the poem was originally published, but I believe that they are version (2). As sung by the Clancy Brothers in "Tales & Tunes," 1988, version (1). Not attributed to Kavanagh, but they are his. I don't have the cd handy, but I believe the Clancys did.
Also attributed properly at the guitar tab site I linked above (tabs arranged by Martin Simpson). These chords are for the simplified tune as performed by the Clancy Brothers and Van Morrison, and others.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 03:37 PM

Added note- Since I have not seen the original poem, I won't add Kavanagh's name to the Attribution thread. The sources I took were on google, and sources there is not always trustworthy.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 03:46 PM

Colm O Lochlainn gave the lyrics in his first ballad book, 1939: probably Patrick Joseph Kavanagh's source. This song was definitely written long before Kavanagh was born in 1904 and certainly not written by him. That's a nonsense statement.                                                

This is a Wexford song (see my post on a related thread on "Moneyhore", mentioned in the song, which is in County Wexford). Kavanagh was from Monaghan, and never wrote about anywhere in Ireland apart from the two areas in which he lived: Monaghan and Dublin: wise man Q.

(Kavanagh is of course author of "On Raglan Road", among many other things).


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 04:26 PM

I have Delia Murphy singing this song recorded during the 1950s.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 05:50 PM

The connection between Kavanagh and "The Bantry Girl's Lament" lies, IIRC, solely in the fact that both it and K's "On Raglan Road" are sung to the old tune, "The Dawning of the Day."


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 07:56 PM

Thanks for the corrections. That is why the Google can't be trusted. I should know better.
Several websites mention Kavanagh.
I just checked folktrax and found the O Lochlainn 1939 reference (Roud 2999), cited by Big Tim. It has the line "Johnny went a-thrashing the dirty King of Spain," so seems to be a little different from those in the DT.

What were the words in O Lochlainn's book of 1939? (Irish Street Ballads?)

Any prior records? Not in the Traditional Ballads Index. Not in Sam Henry.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: vectis
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 08:13 PM

I always thought that it stemmed from the Napoleonic wars when Napoleon put a relative on the Spanish throne thus deposing the rightful Spanish King of the time. There were a number of Irish regiments fighting with the English at this time so I reckon it is possibly true.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Aug 05 - 09:46 PM

The two DT texts name no proper sources (the Clancy Brothers could have got the song from Peruvians, for all the information we're given, and the other file acknowledges no source of any kind); so they are worthless to anybody wanting to know about the song's background.

At a rough guess I'd think that the second DT file is a transcription from a record made by revival performers; a slightly garbled take on the O Lochlainn set.

Probably the first file (as recorded by the Clancys) was also got from O Lochlainn's book. The chorus is almost certainly a bogus Clancy invention aimed at lowest-common-denominator "singalong" audiences. A speciality of theirs.

For what it's worth, Lochlainn himself provides no useful source information.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 01:36 AM

My copy of O'Lochlainn gives two sources.(Unless I'm misinterpreting his shorthand).

1. "Piii, 693", [which is the Complete Petrie Collection]
2. "Pi, 134" [Petrie's Ancient Irish Music]. Petrie's works are dated between 1855 and 82.

O'Lochlainn says that the tune is a variant of "Dawning of the Day", so there indeed is a link to Patrick Kavanagh. (O'Lochlainn was a piper with a great ear for melodies)

O'Lochlainn's version is pretty standard, "Johnny went a thrashing the dirty King of Spain", etc.

Re the "Moneyhore" verse, this is a townland near Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, renowned for its Fair, at which the Bantry girls were no longer going to enjoy Johnny's company. Fairs were often the scene of Faction Fighting, so the fact that "the Peelers must stand idle" perhaps suggests that Johnny was a renowned Faction Fighter.

In Aidan O'Hara's biography of her, Delia Murphy's recording of the song is dated 7 February 1941


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 06:10 AM

It's just occurred to me that maybe O'Lochlainn's Petrie references are to the air, not the words. Can anyone access Petrie?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 06:54 AM

Big Tim

I'll check Petrie. Are the words in Croker?

Regards

p.s. still relying on memory - can't find backup of of my nicked laptop files!


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 08:54 AM

O Lochlainn's note indicates (by double asterisks) that he got the words to "The Bantry Girl's Lament" from H. H. Sparling's "Irish Minstrelsy" (London: Walter Scott, 1888). The melody came from Petrie.

Sparling, BTW, was the first anthologist to include the now familiar words of "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye."


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: belfast
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 09:07 AM

Patrick Kavanagh and P J Kavanagh. Two different people. One from Co Monagahan and the other born in England. Neither responsible for writing the Bantry Girls' Lament.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 01:14 PM

Lighter at work says that the Bantry girls lament has the same air as The Dawning of the day, well, certainly not Delia Murphys version, in fact trying to place the tune as sung by Delia is a puzzle, and I have heard lots of songs in my time.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 02:55 PM

Bantry is one of County Wexford's ten baronies, and one of the biggest, situated in the mid west of the County. It includes Enniscorthy, Killanne and New Ross. In the 1798 Rebellion, rebel regiments were often named after baronies. For example, John Kelly (of Killanne) was a Colonel of the Bantry Regiment. Other Wexford baronies famed in song are Forth, Bargy and Shelmaliere, all in the south of the County.

Delia Murphy's version (1941), almost certainly the first recording of the song, is in almost word for word agreement with O'Lochlainn, except that she omits the fourth verse, starting, "At wakes or hurling matches your like we'll never see". It's seems probable that she found it in O'Lochlainn's first ballad book, 1939, though she did have an extensive song collection of her own, picked up from a wide variety of sources. Basically, Delia was Ireland's first lady of folk. A 22 track CD was issued in 2001, "Delia Murphy: the Legendary Queen of Irish Folk Singers".                                                      

O'Lochlainn says that the melody is a variant of "Dawning", not identical. Personally, I can't hear it but then O'Lochlainn was a much better musician than me. He was taught the pipes by "old" Seamus Ennis, father of renowned piper "young" Seamus Ennis, 1919-82. It was said of O'Lochlainn that he only had to hear a tune once and he "had" it. He didn't read music and would carry the tune in his head until he got some one to write it down, often Gerald Crofts. It's also said of him that he wasn't above changing traditional lyrics, so it would be interesting to see what the lyrics are in Sparling's "Irish Minstrelsy". Any takers?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 03:07 PM

Tim we all have an ear for a tune, and if anyone listens to Delia`s singing of The Bantry girls lament and can liken it to The Dawning of the day, i`m afraid I will take to listening to the Lambeg Drum.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 03:33 PM

Well, then, I guess she wasn't using O Lochlainn's tune, was she?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 04:51 PM

You are right, Lighter.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 06:10 PM

I didn't read Lochlainn's note carefully enough, it seems. I don't have a copy of Sparling; it would be interesting to know if he printed a tune, or indicated one; that might explain the apparently different one used by Delia Murphy, perhaps.

Stanford-Petrie 693 is prefixed by the couplet

Oh Johnny dearest Johnny, what dyed your hands and cloaths?
He answered him as he thought fit 'by a bleeding at the nose.'

Lochlainn also quotes it in his note. The lines seem to be from The Witham Miller or one of its many variants, so the tune may not traditionally have belonged to Bantry Girls at all. Immediately following is number 694, The dawning of the day (from Kate Keane, December 1854) with a note appended: "A variant of the preceding".


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: MartinRyan
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 07:14 PM

OK.

I have two copies of Sparling. Only the earlier (1887) contains the song. No music. Sparling writes:
"Taken from Graves' collection; on ballad-slips I have only seen very confused versions".

This refers to A P Graves "Songs of Irish Wit and Humour", published 1884. Graves' book has neither music nor notes on sources - at least not in my copy.

The version is the full 5 verses. Haven't checked it down to the exact words.

Regards


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: MartinRyan
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 07:16 PM

p.s. A quick glance at the index of the annotated "Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland" edited by Cooper, shows no sign of the song.

Regards


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 07:32 PM

MartinRyan, does Petrie include the melody of "The Dawning of the Day" ? If so, I wonder how it compares to what O Lochlainn printed.

Am fascinated to know that there are two different editions of "Irish Minstrelsy." Is "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" in 1887 ? I can't recall which one I looked at long ago, but "Johnny" was at the very end, almost an afterthought.

And I notice that the Bantry girl's song in O Lochlainn has her sweetie dying in Spain "for freedom." Sounds a bit anachronistic to me, but perfectly in keeping with the Spanish Civil War. Is that an O Lochlainn touch ?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 16 Aug 05 - 08:22 PM

Lochlainn prints Stanford-Petrie 693 almost exactly; a couple of changed note-values only (see my earlier post). If it's in Cooper, it will probably be listed as 'Oh Johnny dearest Johnny' or something like that; as I said, the song it belonged to doesn't seem to have been Bantry Girls at all, but an Irish version of The Bloody Miller (Oxford Girl, Wexford Girl, etc).

Does Petrie's Ancient Irish Music have any more detail?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:52 AM

This gets curiouser and curiouser. "Dawning of the Day" was one of O'Lochlainn's all-time favourite songs. He sang it in public at a concert in Dublin in 1913 (no further details to hand). He was born in Dublin in 1892 and died in 1972. He wasn't a native Irish speaker, though he learned to speak it like a native and was quite scathing about other "big" collectors, notably Bunting, Petrie, and Joyce, for their almost complete ignorance of the Irish language, as he saw it. He hated Bunting in particular, calling him "arrogant".

Spanish Civil War? No!                                 

O'Lochlainn might change an odd word here or there, perhaps to |"improve" the rhythm, but he had too much inegrity to change the meaning of a song.

btw, his name wasn't "Colm"!


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 05:31 AM

Curiouser and curiouser indeed, I brought three old friends in to listen to Delia singing The Bantry girls lament, and also played a recording of The dawning of the day, sung by Michael O`Duffy.
The three men who ajudicated for me have been around the Irish music scene for many years and after hearing both songs found it incredible that anyone could have mistaken both songs as having the same air.

Delia finshes the first verse with, "since Johnny went athrashing, the dirty King of Spain", by the way, have any of you heard Delia`s version?.

The three friends also praised Delia`s singing of a fine song.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 08:15 AM

I thought the War of Jenkins' Ear sounded plausible, but then I looked up Sir Robert Peel and saw that he created the Metropolitan Police after becoming home secretary in 1822, after both the Peninsular War and the War of Jenkins' Ear. Do all versions of the song include the word "peelers"? If so, it was probably written after 1822, though I suppose it could still refer to one of these wars.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 09:22 AM

Let's sort out the words:#

Graves in "Irish Songs of Wit and Humour" (1884) has the following:


Oh, Who will plough the field or who will sell the corn?
Oh, Who will wash the sheep an' have 'em nicely shorn?
The stack that's on the haggard, unthrashed it may remain
Since Johnny went a-thrashing the dirty King of Spain

The girls from the bawnogue in sorrow may retire
And the piper and his bellows may go home and blow the fire
For Johnny, lovely Johnny is sailing o'er the main
Along with other patriarchs to fight the King o' Spain

The boys will surely miss him when Moneyhore comes round
And they'll weep that their bould captain is nowhere to be found
the peelers must stand idle, against their will and grain
Since the valiant boy who gave them work now peels the King o' Spain

At wakes and hurling matches your like we'll never see
Till you come back again to us astore gra-geal-machree
And won't you throunce the buckeens that show us much disdain
Because our eyes are not so black as those you'll meet in Spain

If cruel fate will not allow our Johnny to return
His heavy loss we Bantry girls will never cease to mourn
We'll resign ourselves to our sad lot and live in grief and pain
Since Johnny died for Ireland's pride in the foreign land of Spain

Sparling's first edition (1887) doesn't include the song - and makes no mention of Graves' book.

Sparling's second edition (1888)includes the song, gives Graves as the source. His only change is to give the Irish phrase in verse 4 in Gaelic spelling:

a-stóir grádh geal mo-chroídhe

(N.B. Note the Cló Rómhánach! Nothing new under...)


O'Lochlainn gives Sparling as his source for the words and makes a few minor changes:



The boys will surely miss him when Moneymore comes round
And they'll weep that their bould captain is nowhere to be found
the peelers must stand idle, against their will and grain
Since the valiant boy who gave them work now peels the King of Spain

At wakes and hurling matches your like we'll never see
Till you come back again to us astóirín óg mo chroí
And won't you throunce the buckeens that show us much disdain
Because our eyes are not so bright as those you'll meet in Spain

O'L gives Petrie as his source for the air - with the "Johnny, lovely Johnny.." lines quoted earlier. Petrie says of that air:

(collected) " in the county of Londonderry in the summer of 1837 and is very probably a tune of Ulster origin. It was sung to an Anglo-Irish peasant ballad, of which I have preserved the following quatrain: " - followed by the lines cited.

As a musical illiterate, I can only say that O'L s tune LOOKS the same as Petrie's! The words are a different matter - they certainly sound like a fragment of Edward/What put the blood... and the date makes it very unlikely to have been the same song.

Regards


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 09:23 AM

Of course I have Delia Murphy's version. If I hadn't, how could I have written above "Delia Murphy's version (1941), almost certainly the first recording of the song, is in almost word for word agreement with O'Lochlainn, except that she omits the fourth verse, starting, "At wakes or hurling matches your like we'll never see".

The point about Peel is very interesting. In 1814 he instituted the Peace Preservation Force (the basis for the RIC in 1867): doesn't have quite the same ring to it as "Peelers"! The song could still have been about Peninsula War, and indeed written at that time, with "Peelers" substituted at a later date.

The first established police force in Ireland came in 1787. Named after the geographical areas of the Baronies, they were known as "Barnies" (yes, honestly!).

"The Barnies must stand idle"?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 09:38 AM

Thanks, Martin. So it looks as though O Lochlainn *did* alter the "died for Ireland's pride" phrase. Fascinating.

Might there be two different tunes known in the 19th C. as "The Dawning of the Day" ?

Just a guess.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 09:55 AM

Let me take that back. I see now that "died for freedom's sake" is in the second DT text of "Bantry Girl," but *not* in O L.'s.

It was the source of the DT text that made the alteration, not O L.

O L took his melody from The Complete Petrie Collection, vol. 3, p. (or perh. No.) 693. He says that "The Dawning of the Day," which is the very next tune (694), is a "variant."


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim (on new pc!)
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 12:24 PM

I wonder why O'L changed "Moneyhore" to "Moneymore"? Probably a simple error, but an important one. "Moneyhore" places the song firmly in Wexford, rather than in the better known Bantry in Co. Cork.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 12:41 PM

Lighter

The immediate source of the DT(2) version was MR - your humble servant! I don't remember offhand whether I transcribed it from a text or did it from memory - I used to sing it fairly regularly.

Several of the variants one hears of this (and other songs) probably reflect the Irish love of internal rhyming.

Regards

p.s. anyone trawled for broadsheet versions?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 01:10 PM

And Tim, having heard Delia`s version would you say that it in any way sounds like "The dawning of the day"?.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Lighter
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:14 PM

Ouch ! And thanks !


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:25 PM

Lighter, it`s a lovely air quite unlike "The Dawning of the day", I suppose if everyone on this Thread had heard Delia Murphy`s singing of The Bantry girls lament, this would have been a shorter Thread.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 02:36 PM

Is the recording by Delia Murphy available anywhere?


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: ard mhacha
Date: 17 Aug 05 - 03:05 PM

Google, Kelkoo Music, Delia Murphy and you will find a CD which includes The Bantry girls lament.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,tonyo
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 11:35 AM

A few points:

1. Jimmy Crowley has a couple of recorded versions of this song; from 1979 on "Camp House Ballads" 1979 with Stoker's Lodge and from 1998 on "Uncorked" solo and live. Jimmy (a Corkman) himself declares on the notes to Uncorked; "I mistook the locale for years and didn't realise there was another Bantry, in North Co. Wexford, where this love song from the Peninsular Wars comes from".

2. There is no place called Moneyhore in Wexford but there is a Moneymore.

3. O'Lochlainn's first name is/was Colm, at least according to my edition of both his collections.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 01:43 PM

1. From Micheál Tóibín's book "Enniscorthy; History & Heritage" (1998); "That fine ballad 'The Bantry Girls' Lament' calls to mind the celebrated fair of Moneyhore [note; his spelling is Moneyhore]...Moneyhore [again, his spelling] Mohurry, Clohamon, Scarawalsh - the passing of a century has brought an end to these village fairs and time has lent them a romantic glow which will linger on in popular memory long after the dates of the gatherings and locations of the greens are forgotten".

2. The first name of Colm O'Lochlainn (1892-1972) was in fact William. He was born in Dublin as William Gerard O'Loughlin and changed his first name to Colm when he was about 20. He also gaelicised his surname.


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: MARINER
Date: 08 Jan 06 - 05:53 PM

To the best of my knowledge "Bantry Girls Lament" is from Wexford.

In reference to the Wexford Baronies I would like to point out that the Barony of Bargy is not pronounced BARJEE as many non Wexfordmen, including Luke Kelly, sing it.( as in Kelly the boy from Kilanne.) but Bargee with a softer G. Hope this makes sense . Bargy Castle once home of Begnal Harvey of '98 fame was the boyhood home of Chris de Burgh .


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,Guest, Big Tim
Date: 09 Jan 06 - 06:01 AM

Moneyhore is located about 2 or 3 miles south west of Enniscorthy. On the OS map it is mispelled at "Moneyheer". This is quite common as the original OS surveyors in the 1830s and 40s were mostly non-Irish speaking (often British army officers) and took down the placenames phonetically from local people. (See Brian Friel's play "Translations").

For example: my own native place can be spelt either as Crockglass or Cruckglass. Moneyhore was the home of Thomas Cloney, one of the main Wexford rebel leaders in 1798. He survived (one of the very few)and wrote his memoirs in 1832. They are called "The Irish Rebellion: A Personal Narrative of Those Transactions in the County Wexford in Which the Author was Engaged, During the Awful Period of 1798, Interspersed with Brief Notices of the Principle Actors in That Ill-fated But Ever Memorable" [by]
Thomas Cloney. A second hand copy is currently available on ABE. The asking price is $4000.00 !!


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Subject: RE: Origins: Bantry Girls lament
From: GUEST,HughM
Date: 10 Jan 06 - 02:59 PM

If "ba/n" means pale or fair, and "o/g" means young, what's a ba/n-o/g or bawnogue? Surely not a patch of green ground as it says in the DT?


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