Blaris Moor (1)

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Theme code Index	3315L 1135
Also known as
Composer/Core Source
Region	Ireland
Genre/Style	Irish
Meter/Rhythm	Air/Lament/Listening Piece
Key/Tonic of	G
Accidental	1 sharp
Mode	Ionian (Major)
Time signature	4/4
History
Structure	One part
Editor/Compiler	P.W. Joyce
Book/Manuscript title	Book:Old Irish Folk Music and Songs
Tune and/or Page number	No. 222, pp. 107-108.
Year of publication/Date of MS	1909
Artist
Title of recording
Record label/Catalogue nr.
Year recorded
Media
Score ()

BLARIS MOOR [1]. Irish, Slow Air. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "In 1797 four young militiamen were tried by Court Martial in Belfast for connection with the United Irishmen, convicted, and immediately afterwards shot at a place called Blaris or Blaris Moor in the county Down, near Lisburn; an event that caused intense and widespread indignation in Ulster. To commemorate this, a spirited ballad of eight verses-of the characteristic peasant type-was composed, the author of which was believed to be Garland the 'Lurgan Poet'. It may by found, as published by Mr. T.D. Sullivan, in The Weekly Nation of Dec. 11, 1897, where Mr. Sullivan gives the history of the whole transaction. He also gives the air, as he heard it sung in the County Cork by his father. But I have come across three other airs that claim partnership with the words; and as all four are good, I give them here. The first was given to Forde of Cork by MacDowell the sculptor, an excellent authority on Ulster popular music; and it is likely to be the proper air. Of this, there is another setting in Forde, and still another, different from both, in the Goodman collection; that the ballad should have been sung to so many different airs and settings, in Munster as well as in Ulster, indicates its widespread popularity" (Joyce, 1909). The last verse goes:

In coffins they were hurried,
From Blaris Moor were carried,
And hastily were buried,
While thousands sank with grief;
Crying, "Grania, we much wonder
You rise not from your slumber,
With voice as loud as thunder
To grant us some relief!

Printed source: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song), 1909; No. 222, pp. 107-108.

X:1
T:Blaris Moor [1]
M:C
L:1/8
R:Air
N:"Slow and with expression"
S:Joyce - Old Irish Folk Music and Songs   (1909)
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:G
c2|B3A GEDE|G3A B2d2|edef g2B2|A3B G3B|d2 ef g2g2|
f3d e2d2|B2 AB d2d2|d4 z2B2|d2B2d2 ef|g3a g2e2|e2g2 BAGE|
G3A B2d2|efgf e2 dB|A3c B2A2|GEDE G2G2|G4 z2||