| Clare County Library | Songs of Clare |
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Inniskillen Dragoons (Roud 2185) 
Martin
ReidyTullaghaboy, Connolly Recorded in a bar in Connolly, July 1976
Carroll Mackenzie Collection |
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A beautiful damsel of fame and renown, They all were dressed up like young gentlemen's sons, Goodbye Inniskillen, fare thee well for a while. Now my dearest Flora, your pardon I crave, ? bye Inniskillen, fare thee well for a while, Now my dearest Willie, be mind for what I say, |
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| “According to W.P. Joyce,
this song appeared in published form for the first time in A.P. Graves’
‘Irish Song Book’ (1894) though this must be referring to
Ireland only as it appeared in an American publication ‘A Book of
a Thousand Songs’ in New York in 1843. It was distributed widely
on broadsides and appeared in songsters and newspaper columns in Canada
and America. Dr. Hugh Shields writes of the song: ‘Dragoons - mounted infantry that fought on foot - long enjoyed popularity in folk song. The Inniskillings were remembered for their part in the Williamite campaign, when a Huguenot diarist is reported as writing that he had seen them “run like masty dogs against bullets” - (1856). An eighteenth-century biographer of William's general, Schomberg described them, with “thin little nags and the wretched dress of their riders, half-naked with sabre and pistols hanging from their belts,” as looking “like a horde of Tartars” - J. G. Simms in ‘Jacobite Ireland, 1685-91’ (London 1969) paints a different picture but it refers to a ceremonial occasion and a later date. Irish and British broadside texts of the song are abundant. In a nineteenth-century 'response song' the hero returns from the war in the role of an initially unrecognized lover.'” Reference: Shamrock, Rose and Thistle, Hugh Shields, Blackstaff Press, 1981. Jim Carroll |
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