Annotation:Bard of Armagh (The)
X:1 T:Bard of Armagh, The M:3/8 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Plaintive" S:O'Neill - Music of Ireland (1903), No. 363 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:D A|dfd|ea>g|fed|cA>A|dfd|ea>g|fde/f/|g2 f/g/| afa|gfe|d>fe/d/|cA>A|d>ef/d/|ea>g|fde/f/| g2 f/g/|afa|gfe|ded|cA>A|d>ef/d/|ea>g|fde|d2||
BARD OF ARMAGH. AKA and see "Phelim Brady." Irish, Air (3/8 time, "plaintive"). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The air can be found throughout Britain and Ireland, and is the same as that of "Unfortunate Rake (3) (The)," an 18th century lament which tells of a dying young man. "The Bard of Armagh" has been attributed to Thomas Campbell, written in 1801. Other songs set to the tune are, in Ireland, "The convict of Clonmel" and "When I was on horseback," and in America, "The Streets of Laredo", "The Cowboy's Lament" and "St. James Hospital" (in Sharp and Karpeles' English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians). English derivations of the song can be be found printed in broadsides from the mid-19th century, including "The unfortunate lad" and "The bad girl's lament." A Scottish version is "Road to Dundee (The)."
Oh, list to the lay of a poor Irish harper,
And scorn not the strains of his withered old hand,
Remember his fingers, they once could move sharper,
To raise up the mem'ry of his dear native land.