Carrigdhoun                                                                                              Click to Play
(Denny Lane)

The heath was green on Carrigdhoun.                              Note: Mary O'Hara changes the order of the verses, so the first becomes a flash-back memory.
Bright shone the sun o'er Ard-na-Lee                                                          A history of the song is summarised further down on this page
The dark green trees bent trembling down
To kiss the slumbering Owen na Buidhe.[Owenabui]
That happy day -- 'twas but last May --
'Tis like a dream to me,
When Donal swore, aye o'er and o'er,
We'd part no more a stor mo chroidhe.[asthore machree]

On Carrigdhoun the heath is brown.
The clouds are dark o'er Ard-na-Lee,
And many a stream comes rushing down
To swell the angry Owen na Buidhe.
The moaning blast is sweeping past
Through many a leafless tree,
And I'm alone, for he is gone,
My hawk has flown, ochone mo chroidhe.

Soft April showers and bright May flowers
Will bring the summer back again,
But will they bring me back the hours
I spent with my brave Donal then?
There's but a chance he's gone to France
To wear the Fleur-de-Lis.
But I'll follow you, my Donal Dhu,
For still I'm true to you mo chroidhe.

             ********

The song was originally called "The Lament of the Irish Maiden" and was written
by Denny Lane from Cork. It is a political song telling of the flight from
Ireland of Sarsfield's "Wild Geese" in 1691. The air for Carrigdhoun was the
inspiration for the music to the Percy French song "The Mountains of Mourne.
It was the tune written for Thomas Moore's  "Bendemeer's Stream" (by Charles Marshall? or is it justs 'traditional'', chosen by Moore, arranged by Marshall?)
 http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=11516
 http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/bendmr.html

As you will appreciate the rhythm of the words and the music in Carrigdhoun is quite different from Bendemeer or Mourne
and the melody moves much more subtly in Mary O'Hara's rendering.

I have rewritten some Gaelic words of Carrigdhoun (above) in English phonetics.
Translations: "machree" = my love (lit. my heart).  "asthore" = loved one.   "ochone = alas"... "dhu" = dark (haired).
The Owenabuee is a river near Crossberry in Cork.

http://www.from-ireland.net/poemspoets/dennylane.htm

http://indigo.ie/~wildgees/sarsfiel.htm

http://www.doyle.com.au/patrick_sarsfield.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mountains_of_Mourne
 
http://www.ireland-information.com/irishmusic/themountainsofmourne.shtml  (just a fun midi with key changes)