Not that any of these issues have done much to affect the popularity of Carrickfergus. Whether the O’Toole link to its discovery is right or not, it seems likely that what has now become the generally accepted lyric is in fact an inaccurate recollection of a fuller and more consistent earlier version. Carrickfergus – a great but incomplete songĬarrickfergus is a great but possibly incomplete song. These appear as disconnected thoughts and may be a truncated version of an earlier, longer lyric. The song then takes a dramatic shift in mood as we discover that the singer is seldom sober and believes that his days are numbered and he hasn’t long to live. The third and final verse refers to marble stones in Kilkenny, supporting his love with gold and silver before suddenly announcing that the singer will perform no more until he gets a drink. These inconsistencies are particularly marked in the third verse. On the contrary, his claim is supported by the fact that the second verse is consistent and contains none of the anomalies of the other two verses which may have been modified over hundreds of years. Behan’s second verse is consistentīehan claimed to have written the second verse and there is no reason to doubt him. “Give me a boat that will carry two, and both shall row my love and I.” The last two words, “and I,” make sense in this version but they could easily could be misheard as “and die,” in the O’Toole/Behan version.
Anomalies due to mishearings?Īgain, could the explanation be a mishearing? Other lyrics in similar songs have lines like: The second line brings us into familiar territory involving water keeping him apart from his love but then it gets a little strange again.Īs in most “water is wide” songs, he wishes for a boat to ferry him over to his love but it is expressed in a strange way: “to ferry me over to my love and die.” Does he mean he wants to be ferried over to see his love once more so he can die in peace? It is not convincing. I would swim over the deepest ocean Brendan Behan
It doesn’t seem to mean anything and one possible explanation is that O’Toole, or Behan or whoever passed on the song, may not have remembered the words correctly and so glossed over them. The question is, how reliable was O’Toole’s version of the song he probably first heard in childhood?įor example, the opening line is: “I wish I was in Carrickfergus, only for nights in Ballygran.” The first part about Carrickfergus is fine, but what does the second part mean? Behan said he learnt the song from the Irish actor Peter O’Toole. It was largely unknown before Dominic Behan recorded it in the early 1960s. This may be because of the unusual way in which the song was discovered and brought to a wider audience. This may well form part of the song's context.Carickfergus is one of the most popular of Irish songs but the meaning is sometimes unclear. Work there attracted Irish immigrants, and the local churchyard apparently holds their graves, some of which have black marble memorial stones. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a successful stone quarry close to Ballygrant, in a place called Kilmeny. There is about 70 miles of Irish sea between the two places. What I can tell you is that Carrickfergus is in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and that Ballygrant (the Ballygran of the first verse) is on the island of Islay, in Scotland's Inner Hebrides. This mudcat thread is well worth reading. But beyond that, not much is known for certain. It may have been based on an earlier gaelic language song called "Do bhí bean uasal" ("There Was a Noblewoman"), and there is an obvious similarity to " The Water is Wide". The song's history before O'Toole brought it to light is much more enigmatic.
The Youtube version on this page is by Joan Baez, who sings the song beautifully. Carrickfergus subsequently grew in popularity and has been recorded by luninaries including The Dubliners and Van Morrison. Behan added what is now he middle verse, and recorded the song. In the 1960s, the Irish actor, Peter O'Toole, introduced it to Dominic Behan (it was O'Toole's favourite song, apparently). The song's recent history is an interesting one. There are obviously themes of exile, loss and love, and these, combined with the pathos of the tune, are what get to me. If you look closely at the words, you might argue that it seems to be composed of fragments of other songs, but to me that doesn't matter. Carrickfergus - Chords, Lyrics and Origins OriginsĬarrickfergus is, in my humble opinion anyway, one of the most beautiful ballads I've heard.
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