Carrickfergus

"Carrickfergus" is an Irish folk song, named after the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The Clancy Brothers' 1964 album titled "The First Hurrah!" includes this title. A somewhat differing version was released under the name "The Kerry Boatman", by Dominic Behan on an LP called The Irish Rover, in 1965. Origins The modern song is due to Dominic Behan, who published it in 1965. Behan relates that he learned the song from actor Peter O'Toole. In his book, "Ireland Sings" (London, 1965), Behan gives three verses, the first and third of which he says that he obtained from O'Toole and the middle one that he wrote himself. The 1964 album "The First Hurrah!" by The Clancy Brothers includes a song entitled "Carrickfergus (Do Bhí Bean Uasal)". The melody has been traced to an Irish-language song, "Do Bhí Bean Uasal" ("There Was a Noblewoman"), which is attributed to the poet Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna, who died in 1756 in County Clare. Music collector George Petrie obtained two settings of this melody from fellow collector Patrick Joyce. Joyce came from Ballyorgan in the Ballyhoura Mountains, on the borders of counties Limerick and Cork. Petrie wrote that he believed "Do Bhí Bean Uasal" came from either County Clare or County Limerick, and was in any case a Munster song. An early version of the song appeared on a ballad sheet in Cork City in the mid-nineteenth century in macaronic form. The Irish lyrics were about a man being cuckolded, a bawdy and humorous ditty. By contrast, the English language lyrics are nostalgic, albeit with a slightly humorous twist at the end.