What's your favorite sad Irish music?

[m-jean03]

I'm fond of Andy Stewart, myself.

on edit: He's actually Scottish, but he sings some Irish music, in general calling his style "Celtic".

[greatauntoftriplets]

1. Roisin Dubh (Dark Rosaleen). Once could sing this in Irish.

O MY Dark Rosaleen,
Do not sigh, do not weep!
The priests are on the ocean green,
They march along the deep.
There 's wine from the royal Pope,
Upon the ocean green;
And Spanish ale shall give you hope,
My Dark Rosaleen!
My own Rosaleen!
Shall glad your heart, shall give you hope,
Shall give you health, and help, and hope,
My Dark Rosaleen!

Over hills, and thro' dales,
Have I roam'd for your sake;
All yesterday I sail'd with sails
On river and on lake.
The Erne, at its highest flood,
I dash'd across unseen,
For there was lightning in my blood,
My Dark Rosaleen!
My own Rosaleen!
O, there was lightning in my blood,
Red lightning lighten'd thro' my blood.
My Dark Rosaleen!

All day long, in unrest,
To and fro, do I move.
The very soul within my breast
Is wasted for you, love!
The heart in my bosom faints
To think of you, my Queen,
My life of life, my saint of saints,
My Dark Rosaleen!
My own Rosaleen!
To hear your sweet and sad complaints,
My life, my love, my saint of saints,
My Dark Rosaleen!

Woe and pain, pain and woe,
Are my lot, night and noon,
To see your bright face clouded so,
Like to the mournful moon.
But yet will I rear your throne
Again in golden sheen;
'Tis you shall reign, shall reign alone,
My Dark Rosaleen!
My own Rosaleen!
'Tis you shall have the golden throne,
'Tis you shall reign, and reign alone,
My Dark Rosaleen!

Over dews, over sands,
Will I fly, for your weal:
Your holy delicate white hands
Shall girdle me with steel.
At home, in your emerald bowers,
From morning's dawn till e'en,
You'll pray for me, my flower of flowers,
My Dark Rosaleen!
My fond Rosaleen!
You'll think of me through daylight hours,
My virgin flower, my flower of flowers,
My Dark Rosaleen!

[hyphenate]

5. Danny Boy

Danny Boy

Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,
From glen to glen and down the mountain side;
The summer's gone, and all the leaves are falling;
'Tis ye, 'tis ye must go, and I must bide.

But come ye back when summer's in the meadow,
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow;
'Til I'll be here in sunshine or in shadow;
Danny boy, Oh Danny boy, I love you so.

And when ye come and all the flowers are dying,
If I am dead, as dead I well may be.
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying,
And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I shall hear, 'though soft ye tread around me,
And all my grave shall linger sweeter be,
Then ye will bend and tell me that ye love me,
And I shall sleep in peace until ye come to me.

[SiobhanClancy]

2. Carrickfergus....

especially the Van Morrison version.

I wished I had you in Carrickfergus,
Only for nights in Ballygrand,
I would swim over the deepest ocean,
The deepest ocean to be by your side.

But the sea is wide and I can’t swim over
And neither have I wings to fly.
I wish I could find me a handy boatman
To ferry me over to my love and die.

My childhood days bring back sad reflections
Of happy days so long ago.
My boyhood friends and my own relations.
Have all passed on like the melting snow.

So I’ll spend my days in endless roving,
Soft is the grass and my bed is free.
Oh to be home now in Carrickfergus,
On the long road down to the salty sea.

And in Kilkenny it is reported
On marble stone there as black as ink,
With gold and silver I did support her
But I’ll sing no more now till I get a drink.

I’m drunk today and I’m rarely sober,
A handsome rover from town to town.
Oh but I am sick now and my days are numbered
Come all ye young men and lay me down.

[greatauntoftriplets]

3. Ah, Siobhan.

Love that one, too.

[LoneStarLiberal]

4. The Fields of Athenry

I'll be delivering a drunken ode to Irish history later this evening:

"The Fields of Athenry"

By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
Micheal they are taking you away
For you stole Trevelyn's corn
So the young might see the morn.
Now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.

Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly.
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.

By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young man calling
Nothing matter Mary when your free,
Against the Famine and the Crown
I rebelled they ran me down
Now you must raise our child with dignity.

Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly.
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.

By a lonely harbor wall
She watched the last star falling
As that prison ship sailed out against the sky
Sure she'll wait and hope and pray
For her love in Botany Bay
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.

Low lie the Fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly.
Our love was on the wing we had dreams and songs to sing
It's so lonely 'round the Fields of Athenry.

[KoKo]

6. I don't know......I favor Scotch bagpipe music. but I'm English/Irish/

Scots/French..........so it's a mixed bag as to what DNA I got that makes "Me"/"Me!"

My hubby is full Irish....and it's Enya for him. I find her too "trendy."

so....if I want to hear what I think is Irish, I go with the "Clancy Brothers." I know....pretty mainstream.

But....my music in my normal life is very different. ;-)'s

On St. Paddy's Day, though, I go with the Irish....whatever!

[m-jean03]

7. Fire In The Glen by Andy Stewart

And the Lord has a silence
For the makers of graves
For the builders of empires
The keepers of Slaves

For he kept his great home
Losing nothing but pride
While his kinsmen lay huddled
Upon the shoreside

And there's fire in the glen
Fire in the glen
But no fire in the eyes of
Our young men

www.andymstewart.com
Song samples available for many recordings
Like this fine one here: http://www.andymstewart.com/sounds/dublin-lady.mp3

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Kilkelly, Ireland

I think it was the Dubliners what sung it.

Don't even bother cleanin' the stove out, I'll just blow the pilot light out on me way in.

--BKMcL

[SheilaT]

17. Robbie O'Connell, Mick Moloney,

and Jimmie Keane have done a wonderful version.

The thing about being Irish is that you're in a near constant state of sentimental nostalgia about nearly everything. And we all seem to date everything by various deaths -- something happened the year that person died, or so and so died the month before. It must seem quite creepy to others, but it feels perfectly natural to me.

[Dogmudgeon]

19. Yeah, I'm half-Irish by decent

The other half is Russian Jewish.

Good thing I don't like sharp objects, firearms, or driving fast.

--bkl

[formactv]

9. Croppy Boy by the Dubliners

[KoKo]

10. This "Andy Stewart" sounds good to me. Are you sure he isn't Scot?

Stewart?

I love the lyrics and he's not someone I've heard....thanks. :-)'s

[m-jean03]

14. You are right!

I just looked him up and found he was Scottish.
I had always heard his music called Celtic and assumed Irish.

Yet he has a song called Rambling Irishman, so you see where I was misled.

He's well worth looking into. I saw him perform live a few years ago. It is really beautiful stuff, and some of it is a lot of fun & not at all sad. If you think the lyrics are good, just wait 'till you hear his voice and the talented musicians he plays with.

"Fire in the Glen" is by and far my favorite album of his.

Some great clips from "Dublin Lady" also an astounding work
http://www.andymstewart.com/dublin-lady.htm

I urge everyone to go listen, right now! Get yerself in the mood -- tell me what you think.

[TNDemo]

11. O'er The Moors and Among The Heather

by Seven Nations. Beautifully sad.

[TNDemo]

13. Listen to a sample of O'er the Moor

here:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004YNH2/103-4198685-1147840?v=glance&vi=samples

[dflprincess]

12. My Green Valleys

The seagulls are calling and the wind is in the sail
And she's fast moving out to the sea
On a ship bound for St John's 3000 miles away
A human cargo my comrades and me

It hurts me to think of the things I left behind
Though the famine has blackened the land
And to look now for something that I may never find
Is a problem that's now close at hand.

Fare thee well green valleys
God keep you the same
If in only my mind you'll be
I'm sailing dark waters to far Amerikay
Never more my green valleys to see

[starroute]

15. The Minstrel Boy

I don't even know how authentic it is, but we learned it in school one year and I used to sing it to myself a lot when I was about 14. Pure 19th century revolutionary hogwash, and I love every sentimental syllable.

The minstrel boy to the war has gone
In the ranks of death you will find him
His father's sword he has girded on
And his wild harp slung behind him
"Land of song!" cries the warrior bard
"Though all the world betrays thee
One sword at least thy rights shall guard
One faithful harp shall praise thee"

The minstrel fell but the foeman's chain
Could not bring that proud soul under
The harp he loved ne'er spoke again
For he tore its chords asunder
And said "No chain shall sully thee
Thou soul of love and bravery
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
Thou shalt not sound in slavery"

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

16. Good choice.

That song was part of the sound track of "Blackhawk Down".

I'm also partial to "Danny Boy" myself.

[starroute]

18. I love Danny Boy too

Harry Belafonte's version was the one that particularly affected me when I was a kid. The melody is just so unendurably beautiful -- I can't even *think* that song without beginning to cry.

But the lyrics of "The Minstrel Boy" have always meant more to me. There's a whole early 19th century revolutionary/secret society/doomed causes thing that I got caught up in emotionally when I was about 13 or 14 and that is very closely tied in with the way I think about politics and freedom. It's the romantic ideal of freedom as something sacred in itself -- neither autonomy nor license, but the freedom to be true to your own higher nature -- that really speaks to me in that song.

[Paul Hood]

20. Phil Coulter

Town I Loved So Well, The
Phil Coulter
In my memory I will always see
the town that I have loved so well
Where our school played ball by the gasyard wall
and we laughed through the smoke and the smell
Going home in the rain, running up the dark lane
past the jail and down behind the fountain
Those were happy days in so many, many ways
in the town I loved so well

In the early morning the shirt factory horn
called women from Creggan, the Moor and the Bog
While the men on the dole played a mother's role,
fed the children and then trained the dogs
And when times got tough there was just about enough
But they saw it through without complaining
For deep inside was a burning pride
in the town I loved so well

There was music there in the Derry air
like a language that we all could understand
I remember the day when I earned my first pay
And I played in a small pick-up band
There I spent my youth and to tell you the truth
I was sad to leave it all behind me
For I learned about life and I'd found a wife
in the town I loved so well

But when I returned how my eyes have burned
to see how a town could be brought to its knees
By the armoured cars and the bombed out bars
and the gas that hangs on to every tree
Now the army's installed by that old gasyard wall
and the damned barbed wire gets higher and higher
With their tanks and their guns, oh my God, what have they done
to the town I loved so well

Now the music's gone but they carry on
For their spirit's been bruised, never broken
They will not forget but their hearts are set
on tomorrow and peace once again
For what's done is done and what's won is won
and what's lost is lost and gone forever
I can only pray for a bright, brand new day
in the town I loved so well

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

24. I'm thinking you know that this song is

about Derry City or as the Brits and most Americans refer to it as Londonderry.

Up the Oak Leafs.

[Paul Hood]

26. Yeah, it's right there in the lyrics. n/t

[scarlet_owl]

21. "The Banks of the Roses".

[mvd]

22. "Molly Malone"

I used to sing this with the class in elementary school. So it's had a lot of time to seep in.

[Zinfandel]

23. Homies like U-2, Sarah McLaughlin, Van Morrison and the Commitments!

[kodi]

25. "women of ireland" joanie madden on irish whistle

it was on the soundtrack of stanely kubrick's "barry lyndon"

the scene it played over was the one where the protagonist lyndon seduces the rich widow.

its about as haunting as can be.

[kskiska]

27. I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen

…my namesake song.

[non sociopath skin]

28. An Coolin (think I spelt that right) by John Doonan

.. a brilliant flautist who recorded it on his album "Flute For The Fais" back in the early 70s.

The Skin