Annotation:Blaris Moor (1)
X:1 T:Blaris Moor [1] M:C L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow and with expression" S:Joyce - Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G c2|B3A GEDE|G3A B2d2|edef g2B2|A3B G3B|d2 ef g2g2| f3d e2d2|B2 AB d2d2|d4 z2B2|d2B2d2 ef|g3a g2e2|e2g2 BAGE| G3A B2d2|efgf e2 dB|A3c B2A2|GEDE G2G2|G4 z2||
BLARIS MOOR [1]. Irish, Slow Air. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "In 1797 four young militiamen were tried by Court Martial in Belfast for connection with the United Irishmen, convicted, and immediately afterwards shot at a place called Blaris or Blaris Moor in the county Down, near Lisburn; an event that caused intense and widespread indignation in Ulster. To commemorate this, a spirited ballad of eight verses--of the characteristic peasant type--was composed, the author of which was believed to be Garland the 'Lurgan Poet'. It may by found, as published by Mr. T.D. Sullivan, in The Weekly Nation of Dec. 11, 1897, where Mr. Sullivan gives the history of the whole transaction. He also gives the air, as he heard it sung in the County Cork by his father. But I have come across three other airs that claim partnership with the words; and as all four are good, I give them here. The first was given to Forde of Cork by MacDowell the sculptor, an excellent authority on Ulster popular music; and it is likely to be the proper air. Of this, there is another setting in Forde, and still another, different from both, in the Goodman collection; that the ballad should have been sung to so many different airs and settings, in Munster as well as in Ulster, indicates its widespread popularity" (Joyce, 1909). The last verse goes:
In coffins they were hurried,
From Blaris Moor were carried,
And hastily were buried,
While thousands sank with grief;
Crying, "Grania, we much wonder
You rise not from your slumber,
With voice as loud as thunder
To grant us some relief!
Joyce concludes that the tunes "Blaris Moor (2)" and "Blaris Moor (3)", plus the settings of the tune in the William Forde and James Goodman manuscripts, are northern Irish variants of one single melody. However, "Blaris Moor (4)," from an informant who learned it in County Cork, is a different melody.
