Sing early, sing often!
Autumn resolution for the Boyle Singers - we'll be starting at the earlier time of 9.00 (no, really we will), with a view to kicking off the singing at 9.30pm, from next month onwards.
This week we had a visit from a Japanese girl from Tokyo, Sayaka, who's doing a thesis on sean nós singing and seems to be visiting all the singing circles and festivals in Ireland, (it's a hard oul' station), gathering information and talking to people. She's a lovely singer herself, too.
Jim Bainbridge, Brian and Eileen were welcomed back and were in good voice, as was Eugene – doing a mighty job in his debut as Fear a' Tí. We’re making a small change to our usual format, and the convention is now, a round or two of songs, the sambos and then a free-for-all, or as they say in polite circles: “open to the floor”.
Frank and Frances Brennan were noted by their absence – but you can catch Frank at the singing festival in Knockcroghery next weekend, where he’s to appear as a special guest.
An aside here: Cnoc an Chrocaire / Knockcroghery was originally called An Creagán (Creggan, stony hill). There was a gallows erected on the hill to hang the Ó Ceallaighs, defeated by Sir Charles Coote in the 17th century. They had resisted Coote’s siege of their stronghold, Galey or Gayley Castle, on the shores of Lough Ree. They were hanged on the hill at Creggan and the deed was remember in the change of name, Cnoc an Chrocaire or hangman’s hill, anglicized to Knockcroghery.
No direct link, but one popular theme for the evening was soldiering and enlisting – or rather, against soldiering and enlisting. Tony for one gave us the King’s shilling (also sung by the Battlefield Band, Karan Casey, Jean Redpath, and others):
Oh my love has left me wi' bairnies twa
And that's the last o' him I ever saw
He's joined the army and he marched awa'
He took the shillin'
He took the shillin' and he marched awa'
Come laddies come, hear the cannons roar Tak' the King's shilling an' we're off tae war
Nora had No traitors came from Boyle and Eileen had Siúl a Rúin.
And the other main theme, wives and their mistreatment (Jim Bainbridge, let him be named!) was answered by Helen’s Himself, but he persisted with Three wives in The Fountain – the Fountain being a pub in England. No lyrics recorded for that but elicited this response from Clíona:
My parents they abandoned me and on them I do frown
For they wed me to an auld grey man for the sake of his money and ground
Francie did give Jim a lift home anyway.
Eugene threw in a few unsuitable songs from his repertoire (which is large) and also gave another tale of the marital state with the Brown and the Yellow Ale:
He asked me if the woman by my side was my daughter
Oh, the brown and the yellow ale
And when I said she's my wife his manner didn't alter
Oh, love of my heart.
Breege sang of Josie McDermott and of Staunton’s Brae and Brian sang Zozimus’s Finding of Moses.
On Egypt's banks, contagious to the Nile
The auld Pharaoh's daughter, she went to bathe in style
She took her dip and she came unto the land
And to dry her royal pelt she ran along the strand
[... Moses found, brought home to the Da, who wants to know who’s responsible]:
Ah then," says the Pharaoh, "I'll search every nook
From the Phoenix Park down to Donnybrook
And when I catch a hoult of the b**st*rds father
I’ll kick him from the Nile down to the Dodder."
And we had Bogies bonnie belle, Isle of Malachy and I wish my love was red red rose from the girl with the new glasses.
