You brave young sons of Erin's isle, I hope you will attend a while...
Take a song, any song, the one in the title of this post or any of the other forty five that were heard the other night and get the story. Here's just one about Tipperary (with helpful information from Tim Dennehy's website , a site about the Carden name and most of all Eccentric lives, peculiar notions / by John Michell):
Cardin's Wild Domain
Of all the places in this world no matter where I roam,
I love you dear old Erin's Isle my own ancestral home.
Where'er I stray by night or day fond memory draws my brain
To the happy pleasant days I spent around Carden's Wild Domain.
[...]
So rise you men of Bearnán and get ready for the fray
And join the noble General McSweeney from Killea.
Led on by those great mountaineers those lands we'll soon regain
And we'll plant our homesteads once again around Carden's Wild Domain.
The story of John Rutter Carden (born 1811) of Barnane Castle, Tipperary, is briefly this:
Carden inherited Barnane Castle which had been neglected. The tenants had ceased paying rent and didn't want to start again. As Carden insisted on collecting rents, tenants tried repeatedly to kill him. Carden became known as "Woodcock" Carden, as he dipped and dived like that bird. Once, he overpowered two would-be assassins, marched them to jail and had them hanged. The castle was remodelled to withstand assaults. Carden had a swivel-mounted cannon among his attack-resisting weapons. Then, in his forties, "Woodcock" Carden fell in love with a young girl, Eleanor Arbuthnot, 18 years old at the time and an heiress. He believed that she loved him and that only for her family holding her prisoner, would have declared her love. He pursued her to Scotland, abducted her and was tried and convicted of kidnapping. Many songs were composed about him and the song, "Carden's Wild Domain," was very popular in Ireland. Carden died in 1866.
Eleanor Arbuthnot apparently never married.
Barnane Castle is now in ruins.
Read more about the 'dreadfully persistent lover', John Rutter Carden in Eccentric lives, peculiar notions / by John Michell
19 Jan 2010 - You brave young sons of Erin's isle ...
Kate McGarrigle RIP
Sad to report that that great singer, Kate McGarrigle, passed away on Monday, 18th January 2010, aged 63.
Here's an article about her from the Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper.
And a video clip:
Singing events in 2010
It's time to start planning out trips to the best Singing events coming up in 2010. The first one that comes to mind is the Inishowen Traditional Singers' Circle weekend in March.
Here's an outline of the details:
Celebrating 21 years of the Inishowen Folk Song and Ballad Seminar
Dates: 19 – 22 March 2010
Clonmany / Ballyliffin, Inishowen, Co. Donegal
Featuring: Jim McFarland, Len Graham, Micil Quinn, Colm O’Donnell, Peta Webb, Máire Ní Chéilleachair and Derek Williamson
19 December 2009
Last month, wind and rain, this month, sleet and snow. Roll on 2010 and the Boyle singing circle. Happy New Year to you all. Come along and sing a song for us in 2010.
Don oíche úd i mBeithil
Getting into the seasonal swing, ready for Dec. 19th in Dodd's.
Maighreád Ní Mhaonaigh agus a grúpa, Altan, ag am Nollaig anuraidh, 2008
21st November- Oh the wind and the rain
Undaunted by the floods, the brave men and women of the Boyle singers' circle turned out in force last Saturday night.
Clare started with the anti-war "Bramblethorn" by Sarah Daniels, later on, she sang Sandy Denny's "Who knows where the time goes", Across the evening sky all the birds are leaving and still later, an R. Burns song, "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon".
Two women composers, and that's before taking Helen's and Breege's respective compositions; Helen: "I'm going home, soon as I can, to buy a farm, somewhere around the Plains of Boyle" and Breege: "In Culmeen, near Ballyfarnon", a song about Josie McDermott. Theresa read a poem from her own pen about her father.
Joe from the Sligo singers gave a great rendition of an updated version of Kilkelly Ireland. Where normally you'd be expecting:
Kilkelly, Ireland, 18 and 60, my dear and loving son John
[...]
Your brothers have all gone to find work in England, The house is so empty and sad
The crop of potatoes is sorely infected, A third to a half of them bad.
From Joe we got the email version, Kilkelly Ireland, 2001:
We have a jacuzzi inside in the bathroom
and
[We have] holiday homes in Carrick on Shannon,
Tis marshy, but sure it will do.
So - we finally got to the watery theme. However, Eugene's Dark-Eyed Sailor ended with the encouraging line: A stormy morning brings on a sunny day.
Eugene also delivered up Delaney's chicken - but not quite plucked, boiled or skewered:
So this bird must have been crowing since they built the Tower of Abel (Babel)
He was fed by Cain and Abel and he lived in Noah's Stable,
All the shots and shells was fired in the field of Waterloo,
Could not penetrate or dislocate the tilugated, armour-plated, double-breasted, iron-chested cock-a-doodle-doo.
Delaney might have had need of Eileen's "Brisk young butcher" - Says he "A frolic I will have, my fortune for to try, I will go into Leicestershire some cattle for to buy". She also sang You are the call, I am the answer, and "Willie Taylor".
Brian went from
It's in the evening after dark,
When the blackleg miner creeps to work,
With his moleskin pants and dirty shirt,
There goes the blackleg miner!
to the "Finding of Moses" on Egypt's banks, contagious to the Nile and finished later with Sergeant William Bailey.
George gave us Shanagolden, Lough Arrow's Side and I will an' I must get married, for the humour is on me now. Frank had the Chapel gate in Cooraclare, and Oh don't you know the reason. Tony sang, Oh the prickel-eye bush, The cocks are crowing and My love he left me, ...joined the army and marched away. Clíona, "The next market day", "Sadhbh Ní Bhruinneala" and the "Hare's lament": On the first of November on a bright autumn's day...
Frances and Joe recited pieces, Tommy sang Percy French, and a duet with Paddy on "Hear the wind blow", Breege gave us "Matt Hyland" and Helen a ghost song, for the season that's in it.
Time now to prepare for the next season - polish up your Carols for December.
