Lecture

on The Songs of Duhallow

By Tim Browne

Dancer
(for Sarah Curran)
Words Donal Siodhachin; music Tim Browne

She dances a dance by herself,
And smiles to a face in her mind,
Longing for arms that held her
In a land thats far behind.

Away from the parents she cherished,
In sad exile far oer the sea,
Her dreams are centred in Ireland
And the things now that never can be.

She dances a dance by herself,
And smiles to a face in her mind,
Longing for arms that held her
In a land thats far behind.

When Erin was broken and bleeding
And the tyrant secure in his seat,
Her lover had raised a rebellion
That ended in loss and defeat.

And she dances a dance by herself,
She smiles to a face in her mind,
Longing for arms that held her
In a land thats far behind.

The cruel foe her Emmet had hunted
Before he was captured and tried,
But he stood by the cause he defended
And true to them both he had died.

She dances a dance by herself,
And smiles to a face in her mind,
Longing for arms that held her
In a land thats far behind.

She dances a dance by herself,
And she smiles to a face in her mind,
Longing for arms that held her
In a land thats far behind.

Let me switch this yoke on . . . I have a few notes made here in case Id forget
anything. So, Dia diabh, agus cead mile failte a gach aon i sa sheomra.
Welcome to Teach an Fhile. I just started there with a song that I put a melody
to. Its a poem that Donal wrote some years ago, when we started off the File
Duhallow, there about six or seven years ago. So, just to mark where we are I
thought Id start that way.

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Welcome anyway, and Ill give you an idea what Im going to do for the next
hour and feel free to throw stuff up at me if Im getting side-tracked. So, Ill sing
a few songs that are relevant, probably five or six songs, that are relevant to
Duhallow and the greater area we are calling Duhallow. For anyone who
mightnt be from the area, Duhallow is roughly the area thats between I
suppose the the Mullaghareirk Mountains and the Boggaraghs, like from
Rathmore-ish, I suppose, to Mallow. Thats roughly the confines of Duhallow,
but its not. . . theres several . . . were not aliens or strangers to our
neighbours. Ill sing five or six songs anyway, and well take a look at some of
the writers of the songs over the past couple of hundred years. This is the
English language singing tradition of Duhallow Im going to focus on.

My interest in the songs is in the historical perspective of the songs. Well tell a
few stories and Ill come back to that historical perspective of the songs later on.
At the end well hopefully sing a few songs or one song anyway together. I
have a handout here of a song and Im going to hand it out at the very end. And
Pat will give a little talk at the very end, because tonight is the last night in the
four-part series that she put together, which has been a great success, and fair
play to her doing it.

So, who are we going to talk about? John Philpot Curran, you might have heard
of him; Edward Holland, he was a barber poet, kind of contemporaneous with
John Philpot Curran. This is in the English language side of it now, but they are
contemporaneous with Eoghan Rua Silleabhin, so if you know that time, its
like you know the late 1700s, or mid-1700s to the early 1800s. So, well be
looking at other people like Edward Walsh, who Fr JJ has edited in his Tragic
Troubadour. Hes an authority, an international authority, on Edward Walsh.
Donal also edited Walsh, and well come back to him. Patrick Bohan, Bill Flynn,
Dan Sheahan, Denis Lane, Dan OHorgan theyre just some of the names Ill be
bouncing off and you mightnt have, some of you mightnt have heard of these
people, so thats why Ive picked a small cross section, because its far too
complex and deep to go into the whole lot of the singing tradition, because its
going way back.

So, what they all have on common is that theyve written songs that youd still
hear. You know, you mightnt hear them every night like, but they are there.
And, you know, thats what were trying to save. And it will become more
apparent, anyway.

So, this fella here, this book Stories In Song is a project that was done in
2006/2007. It was launched in 2007 and it was funded by, part-funded by An
Deis scheme of the Irish Arts Council, and IRD Duhallow also threw up a few bob.
It didnt quite cover it, but it got it done, and this was a great start to it, because
it collected stuff that had already been published in several different
publications, like Cumann Luachra and Seanachas Duhallow, and maybe the
Boherbue Millenium Magazine, and little parochial magazines that came out
over the last forty or fifty years. A lot of the time they tend to use a page
maybe, to fill up a page, someone will have an old song or an old poem. Tis a
great place to collect stuff - a bit like Irelands Own or that, that youd have a
kind of a song out on its own, with no knowledge of who wrote it, but people
had it, and I collected quite a few of them and put them into one dedicated
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collection, as a start. Its called Volume 1. So, Ill be drawing on that. And
theres quite a bit of material. Theres about a hundred or so pieces in that
collection.

So, the songs in the collection, they deal with a lot of different topics, like theres
songs there from The Land League; theres songs there loads of them from
the War of Independence; theres songs of love; theres songs of love of place;
immigration; the supernatural; satirical and political . . . some of them are very
good; and well just bounce off a couple of them, just for the flavour of it. As I
said earlier, it is from the historical perspective as well is what I like about them.
This is my interest I singing them. It can be a very, very informative means of
trying to look at local history. History, as you know can be written . . . tis the
winner writes the history, but the Bard records it properly.

So, well just have a quick look at the words well be using, like folk song. I
started with a contemporary folk song. So well just have a quick look at those
kinds of definitions, to get us into the start of the first song, because these
words come up so often through the texts.

The earliest musical instrument we know is the human voice. Humans were
imitating animals, and beating sticks off of hollow timber, and making sounds.
The earliest records, the scholars tell us, is that this type of writing was on clay
tablets called cuneiform. The earliest form of written song dates to five
thousand years ago. Theyre known as the Mesopotamia Hurriam Songs. So
there was a lot of action going on there. It was a very advanced culture, over
there in the Middle East.
Theres an Epitaph in Turkey which has words and music dated to around 200BC
100 AD. The Old Testament tells of Moses leading the chosen few from
slavery, and when they got to the other side they had a big Halleluiah, they sang
a song, a hymn, of deliverance. The New Testament has mention of singing at
the Last Supper. And that brings us on up to Pope Gregory in the Middle Ages,
and the Gregorian chant, and people singing together in choirs. And there was a
lot of secrecy attached to it.

Then up to the eighteenth century I know Im jumping very fast but up to the
eighteenth century a new word came into the . . . sorry the mid-nineteenth
century . . . a word called folklore was introduced, and it kind of . . . it created a
lot of different genres, like folk music, folk dance, folk culture. That all comes
under the folklore brand, or the name folklore.

That causes difficulty when you are trying to explain it, because its very hard to
say what a folk song should have, or shouldnt have, to categorise it as a folk
song. What would be the characteristic of a folk song? Well theres many
different ones: a traditional song which would have a modern interpretation,
like Bob Dylan, Planxty, Sean Corcoran, these people, the Clancy Brothers in the
1960s. They were taking old songs and giving them modern interpretations,
which you would do, just like I did there, and that would be classed as
contemporary folk music.

But all these songs from the old time . . . a traditional folk song is usually . . just
before I get to that, Ill just mention, theres a nice little reference here that I
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came across today, from Colm Lochlann, who was a great collector of music.
He regarded himself as a ballad monger. In 1965, this is what he said about the
ballad, and its an interesting little . . . He says, the ballad, an authentic reflex of
the Irish spirit, in Gaelic or English, has come into its own. Organisations like An
ige, Mintr na Tre, the ICA, Macra na Firme . . . have revived these country
songs with enthusiasm. Hardly a night but come common room, club hall or
public house resounds with ballads, the most popular being those with a chorus.
I have known ballads in Irish and English sung and taken up with joy in Norway,
Belgium, Holland, France and Germany at international conferences. One might
almost claim for
the ballad a good share in building International friendship. Thats a pretty
strong statement there.

Starting in the twentieth century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from
traditional folk music. Many songs the people sang long ago, and which are now
sung and interpreted in modern times, are generally termed contemporary folk
songs. So, if that kind of makes sense . . . its kind of self evident. If you hear a
traditional singer, youd know a traditional singer. Scholars agree that theres no
easy way to explain what a folk song is, in musical terms, but the common form
in folk is usually, AA BB, just like a jig. You have the first part repeated and a
double second part repeated, just like the rhythm of it. Its not always that way,
but thats the general kind of rhythm of the folk song.

Broadly speaking, traditional folk songs are regarded as meaning that the
composer is unknown and the song was handed down orally, from generation to
generation. Thats a pretty good one, that you can be nearly sure . . . thats
called the oral tradition, by most people, and some scholars would believe that
writing a thing a down, or recording signing that comes from that oral tradition,
dilutes it. But theres others who would say that, by writing it down you
preserve it. So thats an ongoing argument as to what writing down does to a
very, very vibrant oral tradition, that went on for years, for centuries.

Another explanation is that a folk undergoes an evolutionary process through its
oral transmission, and the working and reworking of a song by the community
thats what gives it its folk character. Brendan Kennelly, the Kerry poet, he put it
very nicely in one of his poems, he says, All songs are living ghosts, and long for
a living voice. And thats a very, very strong statement too. Its a lovely one,
because thats exactly what they are. They are no good unless you sing them. It
is on paper, but you have to give it, and by giving it life . . . its the same as a
tune; you are inviting the magic thats there through you; you are the conduit to
provide the magic. And thats what hes saying.

So a good way to explain what a folk song is simply would be, like, its the songs
that the people sang. They sang them because, you know, they were their
songs, they were their stories, and thats why they sang them. So thats a very
good explanation.

And I have a nice one here that came from Louis Armstrong . . . he was a great
American musician . . . he was asked the question one time, Louis, what is folk
music? Satchmo, as he was called said, All music is folk music, he said I aint
ever heard a horse singing a song. Twas was well put, like!
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So Im going to sing five or six songs here from . . . theyre all to do with the
locality . . . and just little pieces . . . for example the first song Im going to sing,
because of St Bridgets Day, the feast of Imbolg was just a couple of days ago,
and this is a magical time of the year. Tonight Im going to sing Tureengarriffe
Glen that was an English engagement by the local company on the twentieth
of January, 1921, and its only down the road there. That was last week. I got a
lot of information from Johnny Mahony, Lord have mercy on him. He was
buried last Sunday.

So, Ive another one from the War of Independence, the Ballad of High Mill
Lane. Its an example of a song that, probably, what it recorded didnt happen
at all. And theres quite a few of those songs. Im not going to go into the
subcategory of those types of songs; we just wouldnt have time. Its interesting
nonetheless.

And then we have another type of song, local anthems, songs that are very, very
unique, maybe even to a house. You might never hear them unless you were at
a party in the house. You know, a GAA club, if they won something, they
probably had a unique song. You know, Newmarket would have Up Up
Newmarket, or Sweet Kingwilliamstown, or Kanturk, the Pride of Brogeen, or
whatever. Local anthems; and they have a huge place in their community.

And then theres a few others that Ill come off of, so I think I have enough
talking done now for a minute and, as I was just saying there, the song Im going
to sing is Brighidn Bn mo Str. When I was doing this project some years ago, I
was in constant touch, many times, with Father JJ, and he was brilliant, sending
me all sorts of stuff, cuttings and photocopies from The Nation. And this song
appeared in The Nation on the eleventh of January, 1845. So Ill just give you
that song first, and Im going to go over here to sing. Its called Brighidn Bn mo
Str. And its very interesting. Ill just talk a small bit about if after, but Ill just
sing it first. Theres a few different versions of this. Its the same lyric, but the
melodies are slightly different. Sean S sings it, and theres a very famous
Scottish singer called Andy Stewart; he sings it. But I didnt know it was a song
at the time, and I kind of put my own melody to it. It is very, very like Andy
Stewarts, by pure coincidence. It was two years later I found it out. This is the
way I sing it, when I song it, and it is a love song.

Im a wandering minstrel man
And loves my only theme
Ive strayed beside the pleasant Bann
And neath the Shannon stream
Ive piped and played to wife and maid
By Barrow, Suir and Nore
But never met a maiden yet
Like Brighidn Bn mo Str.

My girl had ringlets rich and rare
By natures fingers worn
Loch Callans swan is not so fair
As is her breast of love
And when she moves in Sunday sheen
Beyond our cottage door

Id scorn the high-born Saxon queen

For Brighidn Bn mo Str.

Its not that I smile as sweet
Or scorn the voice of song
Its not that I refuse to eat
By coming low and long
But that doth rest beneath her breast
A heart of purest gold
Whose pulse is known to me alone
My Brighidn Bn mo Str.

I am a wandering minstrel man
And loves my only theme
Ive strayed beside the pleasant Bann
And neath the Shannon stream
Ive piped and played to wife and maid
By Barrow, Suir and Nore
But never met a maiden yet
Like Brighidn Bn mo Str.

Oh yeah, I know exactly now what I want to say about it: it is not Brighidn Bn
mo Str at all I want to talk about; it is Mairead N Ceallaigh. Thats one of
Edward Walshs very famous songs, and when I was trying to collect material to
put it into a collection, I recorded Bernadette OShea Bernadette Collins that
time, I think. No, she was married. Bernie used to sing this song a lot. I have a
field recording of it. I wont play it now, but Ill play it after if anyone wants to
hear it, because she sent me a tape of herself singing it, and thats what we use
as the notation for the song in the book.

But theres a very interesting little sideline here that I found out when I was
doing this, and thats what the researching . . . if I can call it, what I did, research
. . . there was a very interesting thing in it. The story of Donal ACasca. He was
one of the OKeeffes. And he was a bandido, and he was going over to
Castlemagner doing all sorts of raiding of cattle, and burning houses and
everything. Jim Cronin of Newmarket pointed this out to me, and he was a great
help when I was putting this together, he put me on to the writing of the late
Brother Allen from Newmarket. Brother Allen was a great scholar, and theres
three little letter references here, and theyre well worth reading out, because it
puts a different slant completely on the song, and the story of the song, that
Mairead N Ceallaigh betrayed OKeeffe and he killed her. Casca the English
used to call him, he killed her, and thats the way the song goes. And he was got
himself, like.

But according to this, that might not be the case at all. You can make up your
own mind about it. [Egmond MS, Vol I, Part II, Richard Beare to John Percival,
1653, November 5, Mallow] About the twenty-first, Casca came to Liscarroll
with a party, and drove away all Magners cattle and mine. By chance, a shot
from the castle killed one of his best horses, whereupon he set three or four
houses afire, and also a rick of turf, but the tenants saved them.

So he was definitely a tough man, like. So this is the next letter, from Richard
Beare, Lieutenant Richard Beare, who was the landlord, or the main overseer at
that time for the Egmond estate. [1654, January 23] Col Murtagh OBrien and
Col Driscoll, with all their party are come in, and to come in they bring the heads
of the rest. None stays out but Casca, who will not as much as admit to a treaty
without an Act of Oblivion. (I wont go into the Act of Oblivion, that was a kind
of pardon at the time, of that English Charles, that king.) He that is born to be
hanged will never be drowned, is how he concluded that communiqu from
Richard Beare to John Percival. The Percivals were the family . . . they had a title
. . . they lived over there where Noel comes from. He could tell you a lot about
the Egmonds.

This is the interesting one, now. [Richard Beare to John Percival, 1654, February
3] Now that the Tories are all come in, Casca has now done so, and is said to be
clear of the murder laid to his charge, in which case he will be transported with
the rest. So, whatever happened to him after that . . . was he transported, or
was he executed? Its a nice one. So, from the song you wouldnt think that,
that he might have got away. Its just another thing that leads you into that type
of historical outlook.

Right, Im back on track again, now. John Philpot Curran is the next one Im
going to have a look at, because when we finish this session I have a little
handout here . . . and he wrote some great songs. Im trying to make a point
here, and Im a bit slow about it, but Ill get to it. The song is called The
Deserters Lamentation. I have a broadsheet copy of it that I got, but not a
physical copy. It is a song thats still sung. Ive heard it in Newmarket several
times. Why its a very interesting look, is that its sung to the very popular air of
Phreab san l. Do you know that air, Phreab san l? Most of you know it, yes?

So, its very interesting. Padraic Colum, in his Anthology of Irish Verse, published
in 1920, wrote: This poem (hes talking about The Deserters Lamentation; it
will become a bit clearer to you when you see the words of it, but well leave it
go to the end, because its a nice little parting song) marks the first departure in
Anglo-Irish poetry from the traditional Irish forms towards the Gaelic forms.

When the likes of Curran, who was a musician, and he was raised bilingually, and
he was a great musician . . . Thomas Moore seemingly got a melody from him . . .
Curran lost a child and he used to play the cello, and he used to play out the
window to her grave, and Thomas Moore seemingly picked up on the melody,
and tis one of Currans melodies. He was an accomplished musician because
Petrie collected him, from his son, and Ill get to that as well because its
interesting. But Padraic Colum says, this poem marks the first departure in
Anglo-Irish poetry from the traditional Irish forms towards the Gaelic forms.

So, John Philpot Curran, he was 1750 1817, thats roughly the time, and theres
complete . . . with who I mentioned earlier, Edward Holland, the barber poet.
Was this the start of barber shop singing, or what? It mightnt have been, but he
was writing poetry about the French Revolution and stuff like that. Im not going
to go into that because thats another avenue altogether, but he was doing
some . . . you can imagine going in to get your hair cut and listening to a fella
who was rattling off stuff about things, you know . . . there was no internet that
7

time. So where was he getting his propaganda? I dont know. Hes there and I
have some information. Theres very little information about him but he did
publish, in 1792 I think it was, there was a work published, and the only
information I have about him and some of his . . . I have a number of his pieces, I
sourced it to a JCHAS volume, 1904 I think it is, Im not quite sure, Id have to
check the reference, but a guy wrote an article about him at that time, and
thats about the only thing I could ever find on him. Theres a few people have
heard of him but hes like one of those . . . well keep chasing after him, youd
never know. We might be able to find the book and see if theres anything in
there. But thats the kind of time frame, as I said, contemporaneous with
Eoghan Rua Silleabhin. Stark contrast, which there still is, between the
eastern and western side of the barony. This is whats happening over here, and
the Gaelic tradition is still here on this side of it.

The next thing Im going to do, Im going to sing a song, because at least I can do
that, some way. And the next song Im going to sing is The Bold Thady Quill. Oh,
you might say, Thats a Muskerry song. It is a Muskerry song, of course, but if
youre going to categorise songs by that way, it kind of . . . these are popular
songs of the locality. The Bold Thady Quill is an amazing song, and this is the
example Im using about the historical perspective, because the great works that
come out, you know the Seanchas Duhallows and those Cumann Luachras, those
little magazines that people make available, they are amazing records of local
history and local goings on, and when I came across this Bold Thady Quill, I think
it was the 1993 edition of the Seanchas Duhallow, and there was a man called
James Chisholm, he was an academic from America, and he was over in UCC and
he got friends with John Murphy. There was an article printed in the Seanchas
and it gave the background, the backdrop, to The Bold Thady Quill.

The Bold Thady Quill, everyone regards it as a singing song, you know, or a
drinking song, drinking black porter as fast as youll fill, etc, etc, and everyone
knew it that way. And it became extremely popular in the 1930s and the 1940s,
probably because Sean Siochin was the head of the GAA, and he was a good
man to drink a pint, Id say, and sing a song, and he used to sing it. And then
shortly after that Niall Tobins father recorded a version of it in Irish. And maybe
ten years later then, Waltons came out with a kind of altered version.

So the Bold Thady was a song that was changing . . . Chisholm reckoned it was
written around 1888, because its a song of the Land League. So Ive jumped
from Edward Walsh now up to the Land League. Im trying to bring it up. I
started contemporary, went back to the start of when English language songs
are coming into the tradition, and working back up. Jaysus, it took me a while! I
thought Id be there a bit quicker! But what harm. So look, if you know bits of
this song . . . theres different ways of interpreting it. I like to think he was
lampooning Thady Quill, but I have a great story that differs a bit from the
normal way that people think the story is about. I got it from Tom Tarrant, in
Banteer, who was just buried a couple of months ago, so this is a nice way to
keep him alive, or at least a memory anyway. Con had a great story, and Ill tell
you after singing the song, because it differs very much to . . . you could actually
get it out of the song, but thats what songs do, you know? Everyone gets a
different interpretation. But it does record some very, very nice information,

and Ill sing the song first and Ill just go a small bit into the historical perspective
of it. And then Ill sing a few more songs after that.

So, if youd like to sing along with it. This version of it has three or four verses
that youd never kind of hear really. Theres a few people sing them. Im
probably the one that sings the whole lot of it, but there is other people that do
it. Up to that article by Chisholm the Bold Thady Quill was two or three verses
maybe, or four verses if you add the extra verse . . . God I never heard that one
before! And this one has nine, or eight, I think! And it tells a great story,
because after the Cork Exhibition, he heads off for Kerry, and he gets into
desperate trouble altogether in Kerry; he gets jail and everything, but . . . he was
a tough man.

The Bold Thady Quill

Ye maids of Duhallow thatre anxious for courting
A word of advice sure I will give unto ye
Proceed to Banteer to the athletic racing
And hand in your names to the bold committee
Ah but do not commence any sketch of your programme
Till the carriage you see coming over the hill
For flying through the valleys and hills of Kilcorney
The Muskerry sportsman the bold Thady Quill

Bold Thady is famous all over the nation
At sports and at races hes very well known
Hes the only young rake that can court all the ladies
From Bantry Bay to the County Tyrone
There is no young lady from Kerry to Coachford
That would not allow but him fast at her will
Theres a man in Duhallow, Kanturk or Kilcorney
[] with the bold Thady Quill.

Bold Thady is famous in many more places
At the athletic races held out in Cloghroe
There he won the shot put without throwing off his waistcoat
All fifty-four feet of the shot did he throw
And at throwing of the weights there was a Dublin chap foremost
But the Muskerry sportsman exceeded him still
And around the arena with a wide-ranging chorus
Heres luck to our hero, the bold Thady Quill!
Chorus:
For ramblin', for rovin', for football' or courtin'
For drinkin' black porter as fast as you'd fill
In all your days rovin' you'll find none so jovial
As our Muskerry sportsman, the bold Thady Quill
At the great hurling match between Cork and Tipperary
(Twas played in the park on the banks of the Lee)
Our Gaelic young boys were afraid of being beaten
So they sent for bold Thady to Ballinagree
Well he hurled the ball right and left in their faces
And showed the Tipperary boys action and skill

And if they crossed on his lines sure he swore he would brain them
And the papers were full of the praise of Thade Quill
At the Cork Exhibition there was a fair lady
Whose fortune exceeded a million or more
But a bad constitution had ruined her completely
And medical treatment had failed o'er and o'er
O, Mother, says she, sure I know what will heal me
And cure this disease that will certainly kill
Give over your doctors and medical treatment
Sure, I'd rather one squeeze out of bold Thady Quill
Chorus:
For ramblin', for rovin', for football' or courtin'
For drinkin' black porter as fast as you'd fill
In all your days rovin' you'll find none so jovial
As our Muskerry sportsman, the bold Thady Quill

[]
In the year ninety-one before Parnell was taken,
Thade was outrageously breaking the peace
He got a light sentence for causin' commotion,
And six months hard labour for batin' police.
But in spite of coercion he's still agitatin'
Ev'ry drop of his life's blood he's willing to spill,
To gain for old Ireland complete liberation,
"Till then there's no rest for me" says bold Thady Quill

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