Sailor’s holy ground in sea shanty

Holy Ground is the promised land of any sailors, and it is also the title of a sea shanty of uncertain origins (Ireland and Wales are competing for birthplaces) widespread in many variations throughout Great Britain and Ireland as well as America on the whaling routes that once plowed the seas from Ireland and Great Britain
Leggi in italiano

The promised land

No, I’m not talking about Jerusalem and the sea song “Holy ground” is less closer to the psalms than the title suggests! It is a sea shanty , that has become a popular Irish drinking song, of uncertain origins (Ireland and Wales are competing for birthplace) spread in many variations throughout Britain and Ireland as well as America on the whalers’ routes that once sailed the seas starting from Ireland and Britain; for a sailor often”the promised land” is nothing more than an harbor area or a street full of inns, pubs and taverns where to have fun with drinks, women and songs, but for the Irish it is the promised land of a united and free Ireland
The subject with different titles and the same tune, is repeated with very similar verses from Scotland to Ireland, and yet there is a double point of view: on the one hand it’s the typical and cheerful sea shanty, sometimes rough and with a lot of drink, and on the other it becomes a more intimate and fragile vein, which reflects on the solitude and danger of the sea.

HOLY GROUND, irish drinking song

The Holy Ground” also titled “Fine Girl You Are” or “The Cobh Sea Shanty” is the irish version, named after a district of Cobh[1], a port town once known as Queenstown, a well-known harbour of Irish emigration in Cork County: a sailor is bound to cross the ocean, leaving his sweetheart at Cobh, but he hopes of returning soon to them (the girl and the city). The arrangement of this version “by Clancy Brothers” in the 60s is clearly light-hearted and many of the most recent groups in the Irish scene are paying their homage even wearing the irish traditional sweaters!

I
Fare thee well my lovely Dinah, a thousand times adieu
For we’re going away from the Holy Ground(1)
and the girls we all loved true
And we’ll sail the salt sea over,
but we’ll return for sure
To greet(2) again the girls we loved,
on the Holy Ground once more
(fine girl you are)
Chorus:
You’re the girl I do adore
and still I live in hopes to see
The Holy Ground once more
(fine girl you are)
II
And now the storm is raging and we are far from shore
And the good old ship is tossing about
and the rigging is all tore
And the secret of my mind,
I think you’re the girl I do adore
For soon we live in hopes(3)
to see the Holy Ground once more
(fine girl you are)
III
And now the storm is over and we are safe and well
We’ll go into a public house
and we’ll sit and drink like hell
We’ll drink strong ale and porter(4)
and we’ll make the rafters roar(5)
And when our money is all spent,
we’ll go to sea once more
(fine girl you are)
NOTES
(1) perhaps a red light district of the city or the port area full of clubs to entertain the sailors, in the dictionaries is reported as the slang of the eighteenth century, in the context of the song is however more ideally his own city
(2) The High King: to see
(3) The High King : And still I live in hopes
(4) porter is the eighteenth-century term used by the Irish to identify dark beer; today we say stout
(5) make a lot of noise

Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem
The Dubliners


The holy ground once more: sea shanty

The seafaring version is much slower and Stan Hugill quotes the version collected by the Cobh dockers in 1949 (Seamus Ennis and Sean Mac Reamoinn from BBC / Radio Eireann)

The Oxford Book of Sea Songs(p125),
Shanties from the Seven Seas (complete)(p436),
Shanties from the Seven Seas(p327-8),

Hulton Clint[2]

WELSH VERSION: OLD SWANSEA TOWN ONCE MORE

Swansea Harbour

“Old Swansea Town Once More” or more briefly “Swansea Town” is the widespread version in Wales of the sea shanty “Fine Girl You Are”, and was collected in Hampshire in 1905 by George Gardiner (sung by William Randall of Hursley) ; even if there are many variations of the text, here is the version similar to the Irish one: the protagonist probably embarks on a whaler and thinks with nostalgia to the girl left behind. A very hard life that of the whale fishermen who were a lots of months in the open sea at the mercy of the weather.
Storm Weather Shanty Choir from Cheer Up Me Lads! 2002, that return it more slowly and heartily, veined by nostalgia.

I(1)
Oh farewell to you sweet Nancy,
ten thousand times adieu;
I’m bound to cross the ocean, girl,
once more to part from you.
Once more to part from you, fine girl
(Chorus)
You’re the girl that I do adore.
But still I live in hopes to see
old Swansea town(2) once more.

II
Oh it’s now that I am out at sea,
and you are far behind;
Kind letters I will write to you
of the secrets of my mind.
III
Oh now the storm is rising,
I can see it coming on;
The night so dark as anything,
we cannot see the moon.
IV
Oh, it’s now the storm is over
and we are safe on shore,
We’ll drink strong drinks and brandies too
to the girls that we adore;
V (chorus)
To the girls that we adore, fine girls,
we’ll make this tavern roae,
And when our money is all gone,
we’ll go to sea for more.
(1) or
Oh the Lord, made the bees,
An’ the bees did make the honey,
But the Devil sent the woman for to rob us of our money.
An around Cape Horn we’ll go!
An when me money’s all spent ol’ gal,
We’ll round Cape Horn for more ol’ gal, ol’ gal!
(gal= girl)
(2) Swansea is a coastal town in South Wales 

The Holy Ground (Mary Black)

The welsh melody was more meditative and melancholic, so Mary Black reports it from a female point of view -from The Holy Ground 1993.

I
Farewell my lovely Johnny,
a thousand times adieu
You are going away from the holy ground
And the ones that love you true
You will sail the salt seas over
And then return for sure
To see again the ones you love
And the holy ground once more
II
You’re on the salt sea sailing
And I am safe behind
Fond letters I will write to you
The secrets of my mind
And the secrets of my mind, my love
You’re the one that I adore
Still I live in hopes you’ll see
The holy ground once more
III
I see the storm a risin’
And it’s coming quick and soon
And the night’s so dark and cloudy
You can scarcely see the moon
And the secrets of my mind, my love
You’re the one that I adore
And still I live in hopes you’ll see
The holy ground once more
IV
But now the storms are over
And you are safe and well
We will go into a public house
And we’ll sit and drink our fill
We will drink strong ale and porter
And we’ll make the rafters roar
And when our money it is all spent
You’ll go to sea once more
You’re the one that I adore
And still I live in hopes that you’ll see
The holy ground once more

In Cam’eltoon Once More

[1] Cobh was a renowned seaport in the 18th and 19th centuries when the song became popular with sailors. Cobh was also the port used by hundreds of thousands of Irish people who fled famine, poverty and political oppression in Ireland to seek a better life in America.
[2] On his You Tube channel Gibb Schreffler (signing himself Hulton Clint) has created a great project “A Journey through Stan Hugill’s Shanties from the Seven Seas”, to sing all seafaring songs (over 400 titles) from the book by Stan Hugill.
Nicknamed the “You Tube Chanteyman” he gives us seafaring songs in all their sincerity. [https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/emigration-songs/]

LINK
http://www.joe-offer.com/folkinfo/forum/1137.html
http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=116846
http://brethrencoast.com/shanty/Old_Swansea_Town.html
http://www.swanseadocks.co.uk/Old%20Dock%20Images%202.htm

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Pubblicato da Cattia Salto

Amministratore e folklorista di Terre Celtiche Blog. Ha iniziato a divulgare i suoi studi e ricerche sulla musica, le danze e le tradizioni d'Europa nel web, dapprima in maniera sporadica e poi sempre più sistematicamente sul finire del anni 90

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