![]() I’ve been asked a number of times to perform these songs at weddings, as well as the equally inappropriate Greensleeves - a jilted sugardaddy complains that his mistress has dumped him even though he’s bought her all sorts of stuff. (This is why I think the Van Morrison version is definitive.) I sometimes suspect the lyrics may be intentionally humorous. (My 4th grade teacher sure didn’t realize this when she taught a class of girls the song.) Carrickfergus, far from being a tender love song, is about and from the point of view of a broken down old drunk who has lost everything and is about to die, or would like you to think he’s about to die so please buy him a last drink real soon. The Water is Wide, far from being a tender love song as supposed by careless listeners, is about and from the point of view of a jilted woman killing her out-of-wedlock baby and then herself. ![]() Calling for a boat or boatman to carry one over the water is a standard way to express desire for or expectation of death, and appears in a number of traditional and traditionalish lyrics. In traditional English and Irish folk song, crossing over water (usually but not always wide) is symbolism for dying. ![]() Here is a moving performance by the Irish Tenors.Free Reed, you’re right - Carrickfergus is clearly quoting the older song in tune and lyric. This song has been a feature for Celtic Woman, Sean Keane, Dolores Keane, The Celtic Tenors, Dan McCabe, Celtic Thunder and Tommy Fleming- and many others, Was Annie Moore from Ireland, who was all of fifteen years" They opened Ellis Island and they left the people through.Īnd the first to cross that threshold of that Isle of hope Isle of Tears As the first person to be processed at the newly opened facility, she was presented with a $10 gold piece.Ī song of what's left behind in Ireland and one of hope in the future of an new land of America. When a little girl Annie Moore left the shores of Cobh (called Queenstown at the time) Ireland, and arrived at the shores of New York, she was the first person through the newly opened Ellis Island, in 1892. Here is a wonderful version by Celtic Woman When troubles come and my heart burdened be When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary "I glimpse eternity" it is a moving funeral song, opening with the lines Written by Rolf Løvland and Brendan Graham, this is an uplifting song of lyrics, starting out 'so weary', which has been sung by some of Irish leading singers and groups - such as Brian Kennedy, Westlife, and international stars such as the 12 Tenors and Josh Groban. The tune is an adaptation of an old traditional air Carrigdhoun.Īlthough one of the great Irish love anthems, the song, in time-honoured Percy French fashion, is spiced with more than a glimmer of humour which adds to the exquisite pathos of the song.įor some, this is the perfect funeral song, encompassing mourning, exile, the beauty of Ireland, romance and humour. The lyrics of The Mountains Of Mourne were written by Roscommon man Percy French. This magnificent musical and lyrical meshing produced one of the great love poems in the Irish canon, and a song which graces many a farewell to loved ones. Patrick Kavanagh set the lovelorn lyrics of Raglan Road to a traditional air The Dawning of the Day, and slowed the composition right down. It is thus a song of nostalgia and love, and a likely choice for any Dubliner’s funeral. ![]() The strongly nostalgic tone of the lyrics are made even more poignant because of the changes which have overtaken Dublin in such a remarkably short time over the last few decades, some good, some not so good. More Bertoldt Brecht than Molly Malone, the impassioned lyrics of The Rare Ould Times song evokes an old Dublin that has long disappeared. “My mind’s too full of memories, too old to hear new chimes, I’m part of what was Dublin, in the rare ould times.” It makes the perfect threnody for a funeral. ![]() The extraordinary and lasting popularity of the song comes from the marriage of Colum’s verses to that melody. Writer Pádraic Colum reworked these verses, adding several almost ethereal lyrics of his own. The verses were then combined with a melody either collected, re-worked or written by musicologist Herbert Hughes. ![]()
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