There was plenty of murder, manslaughter and mayhem, in a laid back kind of a way, at the Boyle Singers' Circle on Saturday 16th Feb. It started on the Banks of Red Roses, 'where Johnny all the day had been digging up a grave' (and sharpening his penknife seemingly), through 'Molly Bawn' who died, killed mistaken for a swan, past a few more to get to a grand rendition of Tim Lyons' “The grisly murder of John Frawley”. That corpse was added to the body count by a member of the Sligo contingent.
This song wasn't the only recently composed one of the night either, as two talented Boyle singers sang songs they wrote themselves. Strokestown, meanwhile, was well represented by the “young fellow who loved rural sport” (and singing) and recitations of Robert Service poems.
The Sligo Traditional Singers’ Circle added a few broken hearts to the mix, with an unusual version of How could I live at the top of the mountain and the sad tale of Molly Branigan’s rejected lover,
O, ma'm dear, did you ne'er hear of purty Molly Branigan,
In troth, ma'am, she's left me, and I'll never be a man again;
Not a spot on my hide shall another summer tan again,
Since Molly has left me all alone for to die.
Peggy Gordon and (When I first said I loved only you) Nora were there, along with Sadhbh Ní Bhruinneala, An Gandal agus amhráin eile as Gaeilge which named almost everyone and their townlands from down around Waterford direction.
There were many more, and to hear the like again… be at the Boyle Singers’ Circle next month, Saturday, 15th March
