Belfast Mountain
<abc float="left"> X:1 T:Belfast Mountain M:C L:1/8 S:Stanford/Petrie (1905), No. 558 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Eb ed | c>d cB B2 Bc | E3F {G}c3z | B2 (Bc) G2 (FA) | G2F2E3G | B2G2B2 (cd) | (e<g) f=e (f2 {d}g>)f | e2d2 cd (3BGB | c6 z z/ G/ | B2G2B2 cd|e<g f=e f2 g>f | e2d2 cd(3BGB|c6 (e>d)|(c>d) (cB) {G}B2(Bc)|E3F c3 z/d/|B3c G2 (FA)|G2 (FE) E3 ||
</abc>
BELFAST MOUNTAIN. Irish, Air (4/4 time). E Flat Major. Standard tuning. One part. The name Belfast means 'crossing place by a sandbank'. A variant of the air is claimed by one authority as a Sussex song, however it is a variant of the popular air "Banks of Claudy." "Belfast Mountain", written by P.J. MacColl (who wrote "Boulavogue"), commemorates a Presbyterian-born leader of the Society of United Irishmen in Ulster during the 1798 rebellion, Henry Joy McCracken (1767-1798).
It was on Belfast Mountain I heard a maid complain,
And she vexed the sweet June evening with her heartbroken strain;
Crying, 'Woe is me, life's anguish is more than I can dream,
Since Henry Joy McCracken died on the gallows tree.
Source for notated version: "From Mr. P. MacDowell R.A., March, 1859" [Stanford/Petrie].
Printed source: Stanford/Petrie (Complete Collection), 1905; No. 558, p. 141.
__NORICHEDITOR__