Éamonn an Chnoic

The title of this article contains the character É . Where it is unavailable or not desired, the name may be represented as Eamonn an Chnoic.

"Éamonn an Chnoic" ("Ned of the Hill") is a popular song in traditional Irish music. It is a slow, mournful ballad with a somber theme and no chorus.

Contents

Overview

The song concerns Éamonn Ó Riain (Edmund Ryan), an Irish aristocrat who lived in County Tipperary from 1670–1724 and led a bandit or rapparee gang. Although there is no positive proof of Ryan's existence, he is mentioned in a pamphlet of 1694, in which he and four other raparee leaders called for the overthrow of William of Orange in favour of the Catholic James II.[1]

The background to Ryan's career was the confiscation of Irish Catholic land in the Act of Settlement 1652 after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland when many dispossessed landowners became outlaws, known as "tories" or "rapparees". Their ranks were swelled after the Williamite War of 1689-91, when many of the defeated Catholic Jacobites turned to banditry. It is likely that Ryan himself served in the Jacobite army.

It is said that Ryan became a rapparee or outlaw after shooting a tax collector dead during a quarrel over the confiscation of a poor woman's cow. Various other stories are told in which Ó Riain plays the role of the rebel hero who battles authority in the mode of Robin Hood and countless others.

Song variants

The song is usually sung in Irish, but various English versions are popular as well. Here is one:

Oh dark is the evening and silent the hour
Oh who is that minstrel by yon shady tower?
Whose harp is so tenderly touching with skill
Oh who could it be but young Ned of the Hill?
And he sings, "Lady love, will you come with me now?
Come and live merrily under the bough.
I'll pillow your head where the light fairies tread
If you will but wed with young Ned of the Hill.
Young Ned of the Hill has no castle or hall,
No bowmen or spearmen to come at his call.
But one little archer of exquisite skill
Has loosed a bright shaft for young Ned of the Hill.
It is hard to escape to this young lady's bower
For high is the castle and guarded the tower.
But where there's a will there's always a way
And young Eileen is gone with young Ned of the Hill.[2]

Other versions also highlight the failure of Ó Riain's countrymen to come to rally to his defense and more strongly emphasize that Ó Riain had been a man of wealth and influence. For example:

"Oh who is without
That with passionate shout
Keeps beating my bolted door?"
"I am Ned of the Hill
Forspent wet and chill
From long trudging marsh and moor."
"My love, fond and true
What else could I do
But shield you from wind and from weather?
When the shots fall like hail
They us both shall assail
And mayhap we shall die together."
"Through forest and through snow
Tired and hunted I go
In fear both from friend and from neighbor
My horses run wild
My acres untilled
And they all of them lost to my labor
But it grieves me far more
Than the loss of my store
That there's none who would shield me from danger
So my fate it must be
To fare eastward o'er sea
And languish amid the stranger"[2]

"Éamonn an Chnoic" has been recorded by countless artists in both English and Irish. Some versions, such as the "Young Ned of the Hill" recorded by The Pogues, adapt the lyrics to a fast-tempo song with only a passing similarity to the original folk song. Completely instrumental versions are also common. "Éamonn an Chnoic" is one of few contemporary Irish folk songs to which a harp can easily carry the tune.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Eamonn O Ciardha, Ireland and the Jacobite Cause 1685-1766
  2. ^ a b "Donal O'Sullivan's Songs of the Irish". cranfordpub.com. Retrieved February 26, 2007.

References

External links