School: Tuairín Árd (roll number 14078)

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1. The Search for the Hammer

   

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   A local handy man named Tomy Lyons, built a gable for in the house of Bidd Brown. The gable fell and Jack Sugrue of Tooreenard, composed this little satire, putting all the fault by the way on Curtin's Lyonses' hammer. Sugrue is only about twenty-eight, yet this song-making comes naturally to him.

   "The fall of the gable, and the mighty search for the hammer - for the hammer was all the fault.

   i
   I searched the bogs of Boula, and Dave Sheehan's steeple-hill,
   Along Maloney's mountain, till I went to the Ivy Bridge,
   I turned to Dromadda, and enquired of everywan.
   But no living man could tell me, where was Lyonses' hammer gone.
   ii
   My shoes are nearly worn, and my knees are bending out,
   From searching all the Runaway* (the Runaway Bogs), his hides for to find out.
   But I'll enquire of Edgeworth, the Sweeneys, and Jim Dan,
   These masons they can tell me, where is Lyonses' hammer gone.
   iii
   He went to Cotter's thatching, who now has the drop-down.
   And that wall he built is falling, like the gable by Bidd Brown.
   iv

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. genre
      1. poetry
         1. folk poetry (~9,504)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Liam Ó Murchadha

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Knocknagashel, Co. Kerry

   Informant

   Jack Sugre

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   28

   Address

   Tooreenard, Co. Kerry