![]() ![]() With gold and silver I would support her,īut I'll sing no more now 'till I get a drink. My childhood days bring back sad reflections Only for nights in Ballygrant,īut the sea is wide and I cannot cross overĪnd neither have I the wings to fly I was interested in the history of Carrickfergus so I checked out the Origins Of Carrickfergus over at the Mudcat Cafe but found no definitive answer, but if the Carrickfergus song is of interest to you it's worth the long read.Carrickfergus violin sheet music tab now included. Since then it's been recorded by what seems like every ballad singer in Ireland and elsewhere. Later the Clancy Brothers done a version and some of the words got changed. From the little information I found, it seems that singer / songwriter Dominic Behan first recorded it in the early 1960's after learning it from the actor Peter O'Toole and Domibic Called the song The Kerry Boatman. This old song seems to be hanging around for yonks. Jim McCann and The Dubliners version is in the key of B. Recorded by Donna Taggart and by Lyncroft who also done a cover of Pretty Susan The Pride Of Kildare song, Johnny McEvoy and The Dubliners with Jim McCann. Carrickfergus guitar tab in D Major now added along with a version in CGDA Tuning. Videos of Carrickfergus here.The ukulele guitar chords are included in the key of G in chordpro plus the 5 string banjo chords. It is a song that moves people deeply and it is little wonder that it has become one of the most popular of all Irish ballads. For all their faults, the lyrics still conjure up a sense of sadness and nostalgia and when coupled with such a beautiful, soaring melody, the effect is quite magical. Not that any of these issues have done much to affect the popularity of Carrickfergus. Whether the O’Toole link to its discovery is right or not, it seems likely that what has now become the generally accepted lyric is in fact an inaccurate recollection of a fuller and more consistent earlier version. Carrickfergus – a great but incomplete songĬarrickfergus is a great but possibly incomplete song. These appear as disconnected thoughts and may be a truncated version of an earlier, longer lyric. The song then takes a dramatic shift in mood as we discover that the singer is seldom sober and believes that his days are numbered and he hasn’t long to live. The third and final verse refers to marble stones in Kilkenny, supporting his love with gold and silver before suddenly announcing that the singer will perform no more until he gets a drink. These inconsistencies are particularly marked in the third verse. On the contrary, his claim is supported by the fact that the second verse is consistent and contains none of the anomalies of the other two verses which may have been modified over hundreds of years. Behan’s second verse is consistentīehan claimed to have written the second verse and there is no reason to doubt him. ![]() “Give me a boat that will carry two, and both shall row my love and I.” The last two words, “and I,” make sense in this version but they could easily could be misheard as “and die,” in the O’Toole/Behan version. ![]() Anomalies due to mishearings?Īgain, could the explanation be a mishearing? Other lyrics in similar songs have lines like: The second line brings us into familiar territory involving water keeping him apart from his love but then it gets a little strange again.Īs in most “water is wide” songs, he wishes for a boat to ferry him over to his love but it is expressed in a strange way: “to ferry me over to my love and die.” Does he mean he wants to be ferried over to see his love once more so he can die in peace? It is not convincing. I would swim over the deepest ocean Brendan Behan CARRICKFERGUS I Wish I was in Carrickfergus, only for nights in Ballygran I would swim over the deepest ocean, the deepest ocean for my love to find But he. It doesn’t seem to mean anything and one possible explanation is that O’Toole, or Behan or whoever passed on the song, may not have remembered the words correctly and so glossed over them. The question is, how reliable was O’Toole’s version of the song he probably first heard in childhood?įor example, the opening line is: “I wish I was in Carrickfergus, only for nights in Ballygran.” The first part about Carrickfergus is fine, but what does the second part mean? Carrickfergus - The Dubliners & Jim McCann 40 Years Reunion: Live from The Gaiety (2003) The Dubliners 92.3K subscribers Subscribe 2.6K 376K views 6 years ago Purchase Album from iTunes Now. Behan said he learnt the song from the Irish actor Peter O’Toole. It was largely unknown before Dominic Behan recorded it in the early 1960s. This may be because of the unusual way in which the song was discovered and brought to a wider audience. Carickfergus is one of the most popular of Irish songs but the meaning is sometimes unclear. ![]()
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