lovely little irish stories

this summer i am going to

via

ireland:

the mystic land of leprechauns and luck, of singing songs across the glen, of names like limerick, killarney, and tipperary, and best of all, of heartbreaking ballads of love and the sea.

i am completely enchanted by any song that smacks of irish sentiments of home and hearth and return. i wonder if the reason i like josh ritter's "kathleen" is because it might have lineage through the irish "i'll take you home again kathleen", and if fisher's "i will love you" is so poignant because it draws on the ballad, "till the stars fall from the sky." for many of the same reasons, mumford&sons is my latest irish-esque fix. the preface to them being glen hansard's "falling slowly." before that it was coldplay's "swallowed in the sea," and before that it was billy joel's "and so it goes." all of these songs that sink deep, even from the first listen, ...they are irish in heart. and perhaps somewhere way way back, before i can remember "first listens", back before my brain told me there was a separation between the music i heard and the emotions i felt, there's danny boy (you will not be disappointed by clicking on this link). the last verse are some of the most homesick and lovely words e'er.

And if you come, when all the flowers are dying

And I am dead, as dead I well may be

You'll come and find the place where I am lying

And kneel and say an "Ave" there for me.

And I shall hear, tho' soft you tread above me

And all my dreams will warmer, sweeter be

For you will bend, and tell me that you love me

And I will sleep in peace until you come to me.

others i love are "the wild mountain thyme":

I will build my love a bower

By yon pure and crystal fountain

Yes and on it I will lay

All the flowers of the mountain

Will you go? Lassie, go?

And we'll go together

To pick wild mountain thyme

All among the bloomin' heather

Will you go? Lassie, go?

and the water is wide (aka: o waly waly).

The water is wide, I cannot get oer

Neither have I wings to fly

Give me a boat that can carry two

And both shall row, my love and I.

(i'll save "loch lomond" and "my bonny lies over the ocean" [which i think has been abused by most people's singing of it] for a post on scottish folk songs.)

and finally, perhaps the most moving of them all, marta keen's "homeward bound."

In the quiet misty morning, when the moon has gone to bed,

When the sparrows stop their singing and the sky is clear and red,

When the summer's ceased its gleaming, when the corn is past its prime,

When adventure's lost its meaning, I'll be homeward bound in time.

Bind me not to the pasture. Chain me not to the plow.

Set me free to find my calling and I'll return to you somehow.

If you find it's me you're missing, if you're hoping I'll return,

To your thought I'll soon be list'ning; in the road I'll stop and turn.

Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears its end,

And the path I'll be retracing when I'm homeward bound again.

Bind me not to the pasture. Chain me not to the plow.

Set me free to find my calling and I'll return to you somehow.

In the quiet misty morning when the moon has gone to bed,

When the sparrows stop their singing, I'll be homeward bound again.

to add to these, tonight i found "lille." it's by lisa hannigan, born in kilcloon ireland, and i think it (her voice, the sentiments, the video, the words, the story) is magical.

...and you belong with me, not swallowed in the sea.