LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,107)
  • Text Authors (19,481)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931)

'Twas pretty to be in Ballinderry
Language: English 
'Twas pretty to be in Ballinderry,
  'Twas pretty to be in Aghalee,
'Twas prettier to be in little Ram's Island,
  Trysting under the ivy tree!
    Ochone, ochone!
    Ochone, ochone!
For often I roved in little Ram's Island,
Side by side with Phelimy Hyland,
And still he'd court me and I'd be coy,
Though at heart I loved him, my handsome boy!

"I'm going," he sighed, "from Ballinderry
  Out and across the stormy sea;
Then if in your heart you love me, Mary,
  Open your arms at last to me."
    Ochone, ochone!
    Ochone, ochone!
I opened my arms; how well he knew me!
I opened my arms and took him to me;
And there, in the gloom of the groaning mast,
We kissed our first and we kissed our last!

'Twas happy to be in little Ram's Island,
  But now 'tis sad as sad can be;
For the ship that sailed with Phelimy Hyland,
  It sunk for ever beneath the sea.
    Ochone, ochone!
    Ochone, ochone!
And 'tis oh ! but I wear the weeping willow,
And wander alone by the lonesome billow,
And cry to him over the cruel sea,
"Phelimy Hyland, come back to me!"

Note: Stanford makes the following abbreviations: Line 10: “Tho’” and “lov’d” ; Line 11: “sigh’d” ; Line 17: “open’d” ; Line 18: “open’d” ; Line 20: “kiss’d” and “kiss’d” ; Line 23: “sail’d”

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931), "'Twas pretty to be in Ballinderry", appears in Father O'Flynn and other Irish Lyrics, first published 1880 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "'Twas pretty to be in Ballinderry", published [1882?] [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Old Ireland. A Collection of Fifty Irish Melodies Unknown in England, no. 17, arrangement ; London, Boosey & Co. ; dedicated to Johannes Brahms, August 1882 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2011-05-16
Line count: 30
Word count: 194

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris