"The Bard of Armagh" is an Irish ballad. It is often
attributed to Patrick Donnelly. He was made Bishop of
Dromore in 1697, the same year as the enactment of the
Bishops Banishment Act. Donnelly is believed to have
taken the name of the travelling harper Phelim
Brady.
The English Lyrics read:
O list to the lay of a poor Irish harper
And scorn not the strains of his near withered
hand
But remember his fingers could once toil more
sharper
To raise up the m...(+)
"The Bard of Armagh" is an Irish ballad. It is often
attributed to Patrick Donnelly. He was made Bishop of
Dromore in 1697, the same year as the enactment of the
Bishops Banishment Act. Donnelly is believed to have
taken the name of the travelling harper Phelim
Brady.
The English Lyrics read:
O list to the lay of a poor Irish harper
And scorn not the strains of his near withered
hand
But remember his fingers could once toil more
sharper
To raise up the memories of his dear native land.
At the fair or the wake I could twist my
shillelagh
Or trip through a jig in my brogues bound with
straw
And all the pretty fair maids from village and
valley
Loved their bold Phelim Brady the Bard of Armagh.
It was long before the shamrock our dear native
emblem
Was crushed in its beauty by the Saxon’s lions
paw
And all the pretty colleens around me assembled
Loved their bold Phelim Brady the Bard of Armagh.
O how I long to muse on the days of my boyhood
Though four score and two years have flitted since
then
But it brings sweet reflections as every young joy
should
For the merry hearted boys make the best of old
men.
And when Sergeant Death in his cold arms shall embrace
me
And lull me to sleep with sweet Erin go Brath
By the side of my Kathleen, my young wife then place
me
And forget Phelim Brady The Bard of Armagh.
The song itself, like many heroic, rebel outlaw
ballads, dates from the mid 19th century, when it was
printed as a broadside ballad in Dublin.
PARTITION