Posted on 08/12/2009 6:15:00 AM PDT by jay1949
The buildings comprising the Staunton, Virginia, Frontier Culture Museum's Irish Farm originally stood in County Tyrone, Ulster (Northern Ireland). The Ulster Plantation was an English-dominated, Protestant colony in Ireland. The Frontier Culture Museum's Irish Farm highlights the production of linen. The farm stood on leased land, of course, the fee title being held by the English planters, and rent was due every three months. To make the rent, the Ulstermen produced linen which they sold at local markets.
(Excerpt) Read more at backcountrynotes.com ...
-the Ballad of William Bloat.
The alternate ending, possibly?
‘The Ballad Of William Bloat’
In a mean abode on the Shankill Road
Lived a man named William Bloat;
And he had a wife, the curse of his life,
Who always got his goat.
‘Til one day at dawn, with her nightdress on
He slit her pretty throat.
With a razor gash he settled her hash
Oh never was crime so quick
But the steady drip on the pillowslip
Of her lifeblood made him sick.
And the pool of gore on the bedroom floor
Grew clotted and cold and thick.
Now he was right glad he had done as he had
As his wife lay there so still
But a sudden awe of the mighty law
Filled his heart with an icy chill.
So to finish the fun so well begun
He resolved himself to kill.
He took the sheet from his wife’s cold feet
And twisted it into a rope
And he hanged himself from the pantry shelf,
‘Twas an easy end, let’s hope.
In the face of death with his latest breath
He said “to hell with the Pope.”
Now the strangest turn in this whole concern
Is only just beginning.
He went to Hell, but his wife got well
And is still alive and sinning.
For the razor blade was Dublin made
But the sheet was Belfast linen.
— Raymond Calvert
My grandfather grew up on an Ulster farm. 12 out of 13 children left as soon as they could walk to the city and get on a boat to somewhere with food.
This is a wonderful outdoor museum. Thanks for reminding me that I need to visit there again soon, perhaps this fall.
When people are actually singing stuff, it gets altered, subtly or otherwise. Had a discussion with somebody on FR - must have been a year or so ago - about the song "Delia Gone" - it started out as old blues, went pop, and then into folk. I learned my version from a calypso singer in the Turks & Caicos Islands . . . . substantially different but still recognizable.
At least YOUR folks weren't on the run from the law, like my MacGregor ancestors!
If you're interested in Ulster, you should read the book Destiny Bay by Donn Byrne. It is absolutely splendid.
It’s not in the library catalog.
The Allens were just on the run from poverty. Their farm wasn’t much bigger than my house lot!
It’s not in the library catalog.
The Allens were just on the run from poverty. Their farm wasn’t much bigger than my house lot!
Donn Byrne died young and had really just begun to write good stuff, so he's little known and Destiny Bay has been out of print since forever, but you can find really cheap copies here. I found a Liber Usualis on this site dirt cheap - $25 I think, they sell new for over $100.
WWII, communism, and 14 kids put an end to that idea, although he did buy his mother considerably more acreage with some of the money he made from his (US) construction firm.
For the razor blade was foreign made
But the sheet was Irish linen!
For the razor blade was German made
But the sheet was Belfast linen.
For the razor blade was Dublin made
But the sheet was Belfast linen.
For the razor blade was German made
But the sheet was English linen.
Since all of these endings are attributed to William Calvert, I looked him up and found a page with the following:
"This is a Belfast song. We could even call it an early commercial 'jingle' promoting the Belfast linen industry. "To Hell with the Pope," "No Surrender," "Hang King Billy," are familiar slogans in Belfast, a city where Protestants and Catholics manage to live together (William Bloat is a good Protestant)." (from the Irish Songbook).
Raymond Colville Calvert, the only son and second child of William Henderson Calvert (1865-1952) and Barbara (nee Williamson) (1865-1938). Raymond was born at Banchory House, Helen's Bay, County Down, on Oct.30, 1906 and was educated at Bangor Grammar School and Queen's University, Belfast, where he took his degree in English in 1927 at the age of 20. He was a leading member of the University Dramatic Society, and it was for a cast party in 1926 that he composed "The Ballad of William Bloat'.'
It was first published as a poem in a collection called Brave Crack in 1950 and more recently in an illustrated edition by the Blackstaff Press; as a song it has been recorded in the United States by the Clancy Brothers.
Shankill Road in Belfast is the center of militant Protestantism.
That source also gives alternate endings:
For the razor blade was German [foreign] made,
But the sheet was—Irish [Belfast] linen!
https://www.chivalry.com/cantaria/lyrics/william_bloat.html
Primogeniture, while annoying to second sons, is probably better at keeping the property together and profitable. And you're also not starving at the time you're trying to get the boat fare together . . ..
Whatever the book was, it also has the ballad of the Scotsman and the blue ribbon in it - "I don't know waur ye've been, ma friend, but I see ye won first prize!"
Shortage of land in Europe brought a lot of driven people to the United States. Our gain!
Aye, I’ve got a lot of the Scot in me!
Bookmarking for later read.
My great grandfather was the oldest of 20 children. He left Ireland and worked to pay for the next oldest sibling. Together they worked to bring the next. Eventually all 20 children came to the U.S.
My cousins are teachers, one was a governor, doctors, lawyers, and successful businessmen. All of my cousins have at least a bachelors degree, many have masters, and a few ( like me) have doctorates.
My husband’s grandmother told her family she was going to buy candy and instead walked out of Ukraine on her own. She was 17. She and her fiance planned to come to American and marry here. Tragically, her fiance was conscripted for WWI and killed in that war. She married another Ukrainian some years after coming to America. We don’t know, but suspect, that it was her fiance who paid her way to the States. He probably stayed behind to earn his passage.
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