The Kerry Dance (James Lynam Molloy)

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• (Posted 2023-12-01)  CPDL #77770:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-12-01).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 537 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Kerry Dance
Composer: James Lynam Molloy
Arranger: William Rhys-Herbert
Lyricist: James Lynam Molloy
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1908 J. Fischer & Bro.
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

O the days of the Kerry dancing,
O the ring of the piper’s tune!
O for one of those hours of gladness,
Gone, alas! like our youth, too soon.

When the boys began to gather
In the glen of a summer-night,
And the Kerry piper’s tuning
Made us long with wild delight:
O to think of it, O to dream of it,
Fills my heart with tears.

Was there ever a sweeter colleen
In the dance than Eily More!
Or a prouder lad than Thady,
As he boldly took the floor:
“Lads and lasses, to your places,
Up the middle and down again!”
Ah! the merry-hearted laughter
Ringing through the happy glen.
O to think of it, O to dream of it,
Fills my heart with tears.

Time goes on and the happy years are dead,
And one by one the merry hearts are fled.
Silent now is the wild and lonely glen,
Where the bright glad laugh will echo ne’er again.
Only dreaming of days gone by, in my heart I hear.