Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: GUEST,Learaí na Láibe
Date: 23 Apr 10 - 06:39 PM

quote by Guest:

"Can anyone please tell me about the armoured car song like who originally wrote it and who are the people who have sung it?
what to do some research on it."

Have you read all the thread - there's some backgrounfd information.

Here's an interesting bit on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6W-7TSfkaw

Happy Birthday Youtube.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Apr 10 - 04:49 PM

Hi Louis,

Dunno about the Carlist Wars - but I'll see what I can find out.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: GUEST,oldtimer
Date: 15 Apr 10 - 04:00 PM

Hello Martin,
Thats a good chat you have going there.Being originally from, Ballygow,near Bannow Bay we cut our eye teeth close enough to Ballyshannon Lane.I had a good drink with Paddy at last years Fleadh in Tullamore,he was asking me about the first Caralist war & did the Irish mercenaries fight on the side of Queen Isobella?I cant find much on it .Do you know ?Or does any one else know ?
Of course we parted company at least agreeing who the Maid of Ballygow really was.Hope you keep well .
Louis Laimh Fhada

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: MartinRyan
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 08:18 PM

refresh

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: GUEST,freespiritceol
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 11:02 AM

Hi
we have a live recording of it sung by John Kelleher (from Cork)
In the top of coom in 2002 the highest pub in ireland (just on the kerry side of the border) It's a great song but don't know anything about it though.

All the best

John

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Apr 10 - 08:22 AM

Can anyone please tell me about the armoured car song like who originally wrote it and who are the people who have sung it?
what to do some research on it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: GUEST,Martin Ryan
Date: 22 Jun 06 - 04:26 AM

Declan

Now, that should have struck me alright! Ballyshannon Lane is a well known '98 song, perhaps particularly associated with Paddy Berry. As a (rather confused) account of assorted bloody incidents in Wexford, it is usually sung slowly and freely.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Declan
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 08:53 PM

Blue clicky in the last post didn't work too well. Try clicking here for the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Declan
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 08:48 PM

Lyrics to Ballyshannon Lane are available http://www.musicanet.org/robokopp/eire/twasinni.htm.

I wasn't able to locate the tune. Apparently the song Ballyshannon Lan features on the late Frank Harte's 1798 album "The first year of liberty.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Declan
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 08:27 PM

This thread seems to confirm the link between Ballyshannon Lane and Dromsnot mentioned above (including Brians wonderful lyrics).

There is also a suggestion that there is a set of lyrics to Ballyshannon Lane itself, but these ar enot provided. I don't know how far this goes in answerign Joe's original query, but the tune of Ballyshannon Lane is bound to be available somewhere on the web. I'll be back if I find it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Declan
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 08:16 PM

Thanks to my regular Wednesday night session colleague Gerry Cassidy for his help in identifying the march on which this tune is based as "Ballyshannon Lane". I have a sneaking suspicion that there might be a set of lyrics to the Ballyshannon Lane song, but I don't know this for certain.

Apparently Ballyshannon Lane is a Wexford (South East end of Ireland) tune, although the better known town called Ballyshannon is in Donegal at the other end of the country. Given that the gaelic root for Bally is 'Baile' (a town) and 'Sionnach' (a fox) this town name could crop up anywhere in the country.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE ARMOURED CAR (Séan O'Callaghan)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 21 Jun 06 - 09:25 AM

Lyrics and notes copied from http://mysongbook.de/msb/songs/a/armoucar.html
(I've put the important differences in boldface.)

THE ARMOURED CAR
(Séan O'Callaghan)

Come all my good friends and around me attend.
You can listen to my song.
You must appreciate a hound so great
To the sport that you belong.
No land or title did he ever own,
And he cared nought for whom you are.
He was bred and trained by the boys of Fairhill,
And they called him the Armoured Car.

Facts to you I'll disclose: he had a checkproof nose,
And he never yet lost a hunt.
He had cast-iron jaws and steel-padded paws.
Every nail was like an iron bar.
From one mile to ten, he would never give in,
If you ran him from here to Castlebar.
Small wonder, gentlemen, that the boys of Fairhill
Used to call him the Armoured Car.

In the year of twenty-one when he started to run,
Having surveyed the country all round,
He sent a sworn declaration to the Harriers Association
That he cared not for man, hare or hound;
And he swore right then that if he didn't win,
To Fairhill he'd never repair;
And I'm sure the British fleet they would have to retreat
From Doylie's old Armoured Car.

'Twas on the green fields of Gurranabraher he first declared war
On his terrible Southern foes,
And he swore once again that if he didn't win,
To Fairhill he never would go.
Coming down Scrivens's farm he raised the alarm,
Saying, "I wonder where the other hounds are?"
And loud and high you could hear the cry
Of Doylie's Armoured Car.

At the Battle [sic] of Waterloo well they all well knew
How he laid the enemy low,
When they thought he was done from the heat of the sun,
And the armour on fire would go
To the finish from the start he broke the Blarney dogs' heart.
From the flags sure he took them afar.
When a shout from Séan - carr' ahead, Ceolán!
Take the place of the Armoured Car.

He stormed Timoleague nearly causing a plague,
For he fought till the sands grew dark;
And the country people round, they had got terror bound,
When for light, faith, there wasn't a spark.
The judges growing tired were soon inspired
When out shone the evening star.
Who should be coming to the front, and he leading the hunt,
But Doylie's old Armoured Car!

When the Free State bill was framed, and peace proclaimed,
And the country slumbered in repose,
North, South, East and West, he couldn't be suppressed,
For he cared not for man or foe.
When the Black and Tans and the Saxon gangs
For England sailed afar,
With all their guns and rap, sure never could they capture
Doylie's Armoured Car.

Now here is my glass, and around may it pass
As we drink in bonds of love.
Here's to every hand that mine can expand,
And to those up in heaven above.
Here's to every hound who knows his ground,
No matter where they are.
'Twould be Connie Doyle's delight if every dog here tonight
Had a heart like the Armoured Car.

(as sung by Jimmy Crowley)



Susanne´s Folksong-Notizen
[1977:] So great was this dog that on his death he was stuffed and is still displayed in the Fairhill Harriers premises. In Cork we have everything, even our own Waterloo - a little village near Blarney. (Notes Jimmy Crowley, 'The Boys of Fair Hill')

[1998:] Draghunting is a very popular [winter] sport around Cork city. A scent is laid over a cross-country course of about ten miles and the harriers or beagles are released in a pack. The first dog home is the winner. One of the most famous was Ringwood, owned by Conny Doyle of the Fairhill Harriers. The great ballad maker, Séan O'Callaghan bestowed upon Ringwood his immortal nom de guerre [The Armoured Car]. I first learned the song from Chris Twomey, concertina player with my earlier band, Stokers Lodge and some additional verses from Séan's brother, Hadda O'Callaghan. (Jimmy Crowley, notes 'Uncorked!')

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Declan
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 03:49 PM

MArtin,

You nearly got it, but have reminded me of the name of the song which I think is called An (the) Cailín Deas (pretty girl), which as far as I remember is in English apart from the title of the song. From memory the air of this song and the Armoured Car are identical.

I think it is the one which was originally being requested in
this thread. The thread goes off into a bit of a tangent however as the song is not Cailin Deas Crúite na mBó (pretty girl milking her cow).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Declan
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 09:02 AM

I still haven't come up with a name for the tune, but it is quite similar in parts to the tune of a song called "The Shores of Americay".

Incidentally, while I don't know much about Connie Doyle, he must have been a well known character around Cork. His name shows up in a number of local ballads including "Connie Doyle & Cathy Barry took a sidecar out to Blarney, On the night the goat broke loose on Grand Parade"

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: MartinRyan
Date: 18 Jun 06 - 06:55 AM

Declan

Very similar! I think of it as a march tune, also - a title like "The Cailin Rue" (sic) or somesuch, keeps surfacing....

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Declan
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 08:18 PM

The air, which is a well known march (I think), is going around in my head but I haven't been able to work out a name for it or which other songs might be sung to it. Off the top of my head I think its close to the air that Briain O Rourke uses for the song Drumsnat. I expect this will mean a lot more to Martin than it will to Joe.

I'll be back if I come up with a title or a song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: MartinRyan
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 07:20 PM

Joe
Have we not had it before? It's a great song, one of my favourite Cork songs. I first heard it about thirty years ago, on a sailing course in Bere Island, in Bantry Bay in Cork. I think I have the dots somewhere, if nobody turns up the tune in a more tractable form.

Regards.

Subject: Lyr Add: Connie Doyle's Armoured Car - dog song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Jun 06 - 06:48 PM

I was looking for another dog song and came across this at the IRTRAD-L Archives, and I figured it out to be posted here. Anybody have a tune or other information on this song?
-Joe Offer-

Date:         Tue, 24 Apr 2001 23:58:55 +0000
Reply-To:    Irish Traditional Music List
Sender:       Irish Traditional Music List
From:         Pat McGarrigle
Organization: Eircom Net (http://www.eircom.net/)
Subject:      Re: Words to The Armoured Car

> Could anybody help me locate the word to "The Armored Car" a great song from
> Cork about a famous Greyhound? Would really appreciate the help.
>
> Brian O'Donovan
>

Here's the words of the song from Jimmy Crowley's
1977 album on Mulligan 'The Boys of Fairhill'
(from the notes below you'll see that he
wasn't a greyhound but a harrier).
He calls the song 'Connie Doyle's Armoured Car'.
He also recorded it with Stoker's Lodge
on an album featuring various musicians
(Niall Toner alias Hank Halfhead of the
Rambling Turkeys and Johnny Norris among them)
called 'First Thrust' around 1973 (the first release
of the ill-fated Thrust Records, I don't think they
ever released any other albums).

Pat.


In the notes of the Mulligan album, Jimmy says:

'Draghunting is a very popular winter sport around
Cork City. A scent is laid over a cross-country
course of about 10 miles and the dogs, a particular
type of harrier or foxhound, are released in a pack
to make their way along the course by scent. One of the
most famous of these dogs was 'The Armoured Car' owned
by one Connie Doyle of Fairhill Harrier Club. So great was
this dog that on his death he was stuffed and is still
displayed in the Fairhill Harriers premises. In Cork we
have everything, even our own Waterloo - a little village
near Blarney. The song was composed by Sean O Callaghan.'


Connie Doyle's Armoured Car

Come all my good friends, and around me attend
And listen to my song.
You much appreciate a hound so great
To the sport that you belong.
No land or title did he ever own
And he cared not for whom you are.
He was bred and trained by The Boys of Fairhill
and they called him the armoured car.


Facts to you I'll disclose he'd a check-proof nose
And he never yet lost a hunt
He had cast-iron jaws, and steel-padded paws
Every nail was like an iron bar.
From one mile to ten he would never give in
If you ran him from here to Castlebar
Little wonder, gentlemen, that The Boys of Fairhill
Used to call him the armoured car.

In the year of twenty one when he started to run
having surveyed the country all round.
He sent a sworn declaration to the Harriers Association
That he cared nought for man, hare or hound.
And he swore right then that if he didn't win
To Fairhill he'd never repair.
Small wonder, gentlemen, that The Boys of Fairhill
Used to call him the armoured car.

At the drag at Waterloo, well they all well knew
How he laid the enemy low.
When they thought he was done from the heat of the sun
And the armour on fire would go
From the finish to the start he broke the Blarney dog's heart
And surpassed the "Evening Star" (a rival dog)
Who should be coming to the front, and he leading the hunt
But Doylie's ould armoured car.

Now here is my glass and around may it pass
As we drink in a token of love
Here's to every hand that mine can expand
And those up in heaven above
Here's to every hound who knows his ground
Not matter where they are
'Twould be Connie Doyle's delight, if every hound here tonight
Had a heart like the armoured car.


Source: IRTRAD-L

Considerable discussion of the song here (click)