despite its notation as "traditional, arranged moore, o'flynn, irvine, lunny", "follow me up to carlow" (track b4) is a poem written by patrick joseph mccall (1861-1919), published in his "songs of erinn" (1899), entitled "the marching song of feagh machugh".
the air or melody is reputed to have been a marching tune of feagh mchugh's pipers in 1580, and this may more properly fit the ''attradbution'' accorded the track on the album.
Full scans from a well-used copy added. Strange to see a "rights box" without anything in it on side 2 - I thought at first this might be because all songs were Trad. but B2 isn't.
I see both sides of "The Well Below The Valley" have box but no rights organisation, though B6 is credited as an original composition as opposed to "Trad arr..." for the rest.
hence gales of laughter at a friend's family gathering (a wedding or a christening, yr hmbl srppnt. disremembers which), when her very irish father, richard, son of richard, strongly suggested that the ideal name for the firstborn male baby would be "richard, because he'd be richard the turd, then!". . .°
° - and most english english-speakers don't realise there's a difference between "th pronounced "th" and th pronounced "dh"", because we write them both "th" - and mispronounce "ye olde bull and bushe" something *horrible* besides. . .
it was an overcorrection: he was super-sensitive to being seen as, and looked down upon as an "ignorant paddy" by (all too-many) brits, and was aware that one of the dead giveaways was the habitual irish mispronunciation of the "th" in words as "t". unfortunately, the "th" in some english words, including the river's name, is pronounced as "t". . .
(and yes, the common irish pronunciation of "th" in english words as "t" is arguably *not* either an indication of ignorance, nor poor education: it could be equally regarded as "part of a charming irish accent" - don't laugh - or, as perfectly correct in the social context. but that's not how it was regarded in the fifties, sixties & seventies, in much of england. neither way.)
I'm just listening to this and can't believe Christy sings Sweet Thems as in "Thhhh-ems" instead of "Tems". Did he really not know how to pronounce the River Thames correctly in 1973. He'd been living in England for over a year in the 1960s.