Annotation:On the Lake of Killarney

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ON THE LAKE OF KILLARNEY. Irish, Air (6/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABCA. The song "On the Lake of Killarney" was printed in The Vocal Magazine, vol. III (Edinburgh, 1799, Song XII, p. 29) and begins:

View of the Lake of Killarney from the Park of Kenmare House, by Jonathan Fisher (d. 1809)

Chorus:
On the lake of Killarney I first saw the lad
Who with song and bagpipe could make my hear glad,
On the lake of Killarney I first saw the lad,
Who with song and with bagpipe could make my heart glad.

Verse:
And his hair was so red and his eyes were so bright,
Oh they shone like the stars in a cold frosty night.
So tall and so strait, my dear Paddy was seen,
Oh he look'd like the fairies that dance on the green,

Chorus

All the girls of Killarney wore green willow tree,
When first my dear Patrick sung love tales to me,
Oh he sung and he danc'd and he won my fond heart,
And to save his dear life with my own I would part.

Chorus:

The tune was also entered into the music copybook of Ensign Thomas Molyneaux, "6th Regnt", Shelburne, Nova Scotia, dated 1788.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1), c. 1805; pp. 36-37.

Recorded sources:

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