The Town of Antrim

The town of Antrim, song / Alec Foster, singing in English

The town of Antrim, song / Alec Foster, singing in English

ITMA Reference	55069
Creator	Foster, Alec, singing in English
Contributor	Shields, Hugh, collector
Date	13 October 1968
Location	Hugh Shields’s house, Dublin
Type	Sound
Extent	1 computer file (MP3 file, 46 sec.) : digital, stereo
Collection	Hugh Shields Collection
Subject	Ireland: Singing in English
Language	English
Publisher	Irish Traditional Music Archive
Copyright	Performers, Hugh Shields
Source	1021-ITMA-REEL [HS 6819]
Roud Number	2746
View in ITMA catalogue:	Go to catalogue

Notes

Riddle answer

It was in the town of Antrim near to the river Bann
It is as nice a (pause) river as flows through Ireland
Oh it is as nice a (pause) river as ever my eye did see
And I’ll think on you when far away from Paddy’s green country

Farewell unto me comrade boys that do live at Drumshoo
Likewise my friends and (pause) neighbours their sports for to renew
I’ll miss my comrades (pause) boys and girls and my comrades they’ll miss me
But I’ll think on them where’er I roam from Paddy’s green country.

Notes from Hugh Shields

Alec sang two verses, learnt from a Belfast actor who borrowed the curious phrasing as a joke from some traditional source. The fragment is in O Lochlainn’s Irish street ballads (1939:40, 206, 220) and Richard Hayward’s Ulster songs and ballads of the town and the country (1925:25); Shields Index no 410. Roud 2746.