Annotation:Bonny Portmore
X:1 T:Bonny Portmore M:3/8 L:1/8 S:Edward Bunting (1840) K:A A/F/|EEF/A/|BB (3A/B/c/|ddc/B/|c/A/F (3A/B/c/|ddc/B/| A/c/e c/B/|A/F/D/E/F/G/|EE||(3B/c/d/|eee/f/|dd (3A/B/c/| ddc/B/|c/A/F (3A/B/c/|ddc/B/|A/c/e c/B/|A/F/D/E/F/G/| EE||(3B/c/d/|e/d/e/f/e/f/|d/c/d/e/d/e/|c/B/c/d/c/d/| c/A/F (3A/B/c/|ddc/B/|A/c/e c/B/|A/F/D/E/F/G/|EE||
BONNY PORTMORE. AKA and see "Margaret Lavin," "Peggy Levin," "Peggi Ni Leavan," "Peggy na Leavien," "Peggin a Levin." Irish, Slow Air (3/4 or 3/8 time). D Mixolydian (O Boyle): D Dorian (Darley & McCall): E Mixolydian (O'Sullivan/Bunting). Standard tuning (fiddle). One part (O'Boyle): AB (Darley & McCall): ABC (O'Sullivan/Bunting). The Irish collector Edward Bunting (1840) found the tune a favorite air in County Antrim around the area of Ballinderry. He states:
Portmore, an old residence of the O'Neill's, stood on the banks of Lough Beg, a small and shallow, but picturesque, sheet of water adjoining Lough Neagh. The ivy-clad ruins of the old church still stand on a neighbouring eminence, which in summer forms a promontory, and in winter is surrounded by the waters of the lake. On the plantation of this part of the country in 1611, Portmore became the property of Lord Conway, who built a manison here, of which there are still some traces. (O Boyle states Conway built the castle on the ruins of a more ancient fortress in 1664, but that it was neglected after his death and finally, in 1761, most of the buildings were removed.) This was a favourite retreat of Doctor JeremyTaylor, when Bishop of Dromore; and the tree under which he used to sit, to hear this melody sung by the peasantry was pointed out until some years ago. (O Boyle states this oak was referred to as the 'ornament tree', some fourteen yards in circumference, which was blown down in 1760 and sold for lumber). The air is probably as old as the time of the O'Neill's in Ballinderry, to whose declining fortunes there would appear to be an allusion in the first stanza of the English words, which are still sung with it:
Bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand
And the more I think on you the more my heart warms.
But if I had you now, as I had once before,
All the gold in all England would not buy you, Portmore!
O'Sullivan (1983) notes that nothing is known of the Peggy Leavan of the alternate title, whose name is misspelled in Irish, and whose name in English would by Peggy or Margaret Levinge.