Dublin Murder Ballad- Joe Heaney (Éinniú) 1963 REC MacColl
[Single stanza recording by Seeger/MacColl in 1963. Also online: http://www.joeheaney.org/default.asp?contentID=812
This ballad, loosely based on the early 1800's broadside "Polly's Love," or traditional versions thereof, surfaced in the early 1900s and was recorded in the 1950s-- both Ireland and Scotland. The first recording titled, "Miss Brown of Dublin City," was made by the famous Scottish traveller, Jeannie Robertson and was recorded in September of 1953 at the time when Robertson, from Aberdeen, was staying at Alan Lomax's flat in London.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Dublin Murder Ballad- sung by Joe Éinniú, 1963
Listen: http://www.joeheaney.org/default.asp?contentID=812
In Dublin’s fair city, in Dublin’s fair town
There dwelt a pretty maiden, her name was Mary Brown
She courted a sailor for seven long years
And at the beginning he called her his dear.
Notes
This fragment was recorded by Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in December, 1963, at the same time that they recorded the items subsequently released in the two-disc album, The Road from Connemara. In the transcript of those tapes, available on-line, this stanza is mislabelled as ‘The Maid of Sweet Goirtín.’ The air is the same one Joe used for Tá na páipéir dhá saighneáil, which appears on his 1971 Gael-Linn LP. A comparison reveals that when singing in Irish Joe uses a great deal more of the ornamentation associated with the ‘sean-nós’ style than he does in the English-language song