The Irish Rover
Anonymous Irish Song
The Irish Rover is an Irish folk song about a magnificent though improbable sailing ship that reaches an unfortunate end. It has been recorded by numerous artists, some of whom have made changes to the lyrics over time.According to the 1966 publication Walton's New Treasury of Irish Songs and Ballads 2, the song is attributed to songwriter/arranger J. M. Crofts.
There is a manuscript version of the song dated to 1937/38. It is currently in the Irish National Folklore Collection in Dublin. The source is Lisgotman Townland, Cloonlogher, County Leitrim. The next source for Roud 7379 in the Vaughan Williams Library catalogue is the singer Denis Murray from County Cork, collected by Fred Hamer, possibly 1946. On the time scale of traditional folk songs this is quite recent.
However a Canadian source, Oliver John Abbott (1872 - 1962) was born in England and worked in farms in an Irish community in the Ottawa Valley. He recorded this song in 1961 but claimed to have learned it the 1880s and 1890s. Another source in Maine was recorded in 1941. This suggests that the song is connected to an Irish expatriate community in Canada or the USA.
Related Scottish Country Dances
The Irish RoverThe Irish Rover - Anonymous
We set sail from the sweet cove of Cork
We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks
For the grand city hall in New York
'Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore-and-aft
And oh, how the wild winds drove her.
She'd got several blasts, she'd twenty-seven masts
And we called her the Irish Rover.
We had one million bags of the best Sligo rags
We had two million barrels of stones
We had three million sides of old blind horses hides,
We had four million barrels of bones.
We had five million hogs, we had six million dogs,
Seven million barrels of porter.
We had eight million bales of old nanny goats' tails,
In the hold of the Irish Rover.
There was awl Mickey Coote who played hard on his flute
When the ladies lined up for his set
He was tootin' with skill for each sparkling quadrille
Though the dancers were fluther'd and bet
With his sparse witty talk he was cock of the walk
As he rolled the dames under and over
They all knew at a glance when he took up his stance
And he sailed in the Irish Rover
There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee,
There was Hogan from County Tyrone
There was Jimmy McGurk who was scarred stiff of work
And a man from Westmeath called Malone
There was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule
And fighting Bill Tracey from Dover
And your man Mick McCann from the banks of the Bann
Was the skipper of the Irish Rover
We had sailed seven years when the measles broke out
And the ship lost its way in a fog.
And that whale of the crew was reduced down to two,
Just meself and the captain's old dog.
Then the ship struck a rock, oh Lord what a shock
The bulkhead was turned right over
Turned nine times around, and the poor dog was drowned
I'm the last of the Irish Rover
The Irish Rover Song Video
The Irish Rover Song - Information VideoThe "Bounty" in Bangor Bay, Northern Ireland
Dance information licensed under this Creative Commons Licence 3.0.
Text from this original The Irish Rover article on Wikipedia.
Text from this original The Irish Rover article on Wikisource.
Image copyright Rossographer under this Creative Commons Licence 2.0.