Modern

My Love is a Well

/ David Wood / Leave a comment

Where to start… to me these lyrics have echoes of the biblical Song of Songs (aka The Song of Solomon) with its natural imagery. Daoirí Farrell‘s performance makes this song, written by the late Liam Weldon, seem like it’s always been part of the tradition. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

MY LOVE IS A WELL (Liam Weldon)

My love is a well, a deep dropping-well,
As deep as the bottomless sea.
Immersed am I, in the well of my love,
Immersed in ecstasy,
Immersed in ecstasy.

My love is an eagle and fierce is her cry,
As she calls me to mate, with her for to fly,
To the land of the mountains, the mist and the sky,
Where our young eagles scream at the dawning,
Our young eagles scream at the dawning.

My love is a fraughan, royal purple and black,
A fraughan that dwells by the rude mountain track.
And we’ll sink deep our roots, in the mountain’s broad back,
And our seed will spread over the mountain,
Our seed will spread over the mountain.

My love is a flower, so shy to behold,
A primrose emerging from winter’s cold,
A song of the dream-time that’s new and yet old,
And I love my bright love till the dawning,
I will love my bright love till the dawning.

The Boys of Barr na Sráide

/ David Wood / Leave a comment

This well-known Irish song is based on a a poem written by Sigerson Clifford and is titled after the street of the same name in Cahersiveen, County Kerry.

The poem tells the story of Clifford’s friends during the Black and Tan period and up to the Irish Civil War. “Hunting for the wren” is an old Irish tradition on St. Stephen’s Day (December 26 - Wren Day).

Here it is sung by three Kerrymen, the young Padraig Ó Sé (of Dún Chaoin, Co. Kerry) with two masters, Seán Garvey and Tim Dennehy.

The Boys of Barr na Sráide

Oh the town, it climbs the mountain and looks upon the sea
At sleeping time or waking, ’tis there I’d long to be
To walk again that kindly street, the place where life began
And the Boys of Barr na Sráide went hunting for the wren

With cudgels stout they roamed about to hunt the dreólín
We searched for birds in every furze from Litir to Dooneen
We sang for joy beneath the sky, life held no print nor plan
And the Boys of Barr na Sráide went hunting for the wren

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The Ballad of Patrick Murphy

/ David Wood / Leave a comment

One hundred and three years ago today, the fisherman Patrick Murphy of Passage West Co. Cork was shot by a local bailiff. To commemorate the 100th anniversary in 2011, Cork singer/songwriter John Spillane composed this ballad. At first the song was about hatred and blame, but as Spillane describes, he worked through that in the writing, and in the end the song is about peace and reconciliation.

The Ballad of Patrick Murphy.

Chorus:
They lived beside the river
At the turning of the tide
They lived beside the river
By the river they lived and they died

Patrick Murphy was a fisherman, and a gentleman, and a good man,
In the town of Passage West,
With a wife and seven children,
And he tended to his nets.

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