Annotation:Cearbhall Bán Mo Chroi

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CEARBHALL BÁáN MO CHROI. Irish, Slow Air. The tune to a ballad of the Rising of 1798, composed by Fenian poet John Keegan Casey (1846-1870), although Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin (1999) thinks it may have been based on an older sean nós air. The song tells the tale of a woman grieving for her lover, who has been executed by hanging for his part in the rebellion. It begins:

It was in the town of Wexford, they sentenced him to die,
And in the town of Wexford, they built his gallows high;
It being one summer's morning, as beamed the gentle dawn,
Upon that cursed gibbet they hung my Cearbhall Bán.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources:

Recorded sources: Celtic Crossings CD0299-02, Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin & Patrick Ourceau - "Tracin" (1999. Learned from Ó hAllmhuráin's father Francie, who had it from Killnamona fiddler Joe Commane in the 1940's).

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