CARRICKFERGUS Story and Song
It was not youthful ears that heard Carrickfergus for the first time, only a few short years ago. For this listener it had not been a well-known song, one sung and heard with enjoyment, since the good old days. That it was an old Irish folk song, was not known, back then. It was love at first hearing.
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| Carrickfergus Lyrics |
Since that satisfying moment, more has been learned about Carrickfergus, the song. It almost disappeared, it seems, from Irish folk tradition until a famous Irish actor sang it for a friend. The Irish actor was Peter O'Toole who was made famous for his role in Lawrence of Arabia. The friend who listened and liked what he heard was Dominic Behan. In the mid 1960s, Behan made a recording of Carrickfergus, and it quickly became one of the most popular of Irish ballads.
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| Carrickfergus Sheet Music | |
Irish Music Daily shares the notion that the song's reference to Kilkenny, in the south of Ireland, is, probably, meant for Kilmeny, an ancient parish across the sea to the Isle of Islay in Scotland. Ballygrant (some sing it as Ballygran or Ballygrand) and a churchyard with black marble stones can also be found across the sea in Kilmeny.
It is possible Peter O'Toole did not hear the words to the song correctly or did not remember them correctly. (A song that was sung in childhood with the words and the deer and the antelope play was heard as and the dear anti anti ope pay. It made no sense whatsoever!)
After listening to many versions of Carrickfergus on YouTube, and creating a list especially for them, some favorites stand out. Surprisingly, the version enjoyed least was by Van Morrison, and it was not added to the list of favorite Carrickfergus performances. None of the video's commenters were in agreement, however. They considered it the best version of Carrickfergus ever recorded. Morrison had his own way with the melody and the lyrics, too. The ballad had to bend over backward to his personality, making it difficult for the listener to sing along. But it grows on you, over time, so we might go back and add it to the list.
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| The oldest known map of Carrickfergus, from 1560 |
The favorite version of Carrickfergus, for these ears, turned out to be the very first one ever heard. Sung by Ryan Kelly, a member of the group Celtic Thunder, there is nothing, according to this listener, not to like about it. Even the use of I wish I was instead of I wish I were, at the very beginning, bothers only a little.
Throughout his rendition of Carrickfergus, Kelly holds an almost perfect display of emotion. As the ballad's story unfolds, the slight accent heard makes the song even more appealing. Oddly endearing is the slurring of the words from town to town when he sings about the handsome rover. The song comes to an end with the listener being informed that the sorrowful lamenter's days are numbered, and he woefully invites the young men to lay me down. All the sorrow and sadness in the song's grieving tale is transferred to the heart of the one who listens. Singing easily along with Mr. Kelly's melancholy crooning and his poignant longing for Carrickfergus leaves a wannabe singer with a vague yearning for the never visited town and the sea.
Carrickfergus could have a personal story to tell. In the imagination, a young man can be conjured, taking that long road down to the sea. Boarding a waiting ship, in his heart he knows the voyage will, forever, take him from the land, the language and the people he has known and loved. A listener might imagine a fifth great grandfather becoming a settler in a strange land and wistfully pining for his own Carrickfergus that was left behind in the north of Ireland.
