Hills of Connemara (Mountain Tae, Mountain Tay)

DESCRIPTION: Moonshiners are told, "Gather up the pots... Run like the devil from the excise man." The excise men come to the still, but they come to drink "all night, Drinkin' up the tae till the broad daylight"
AUTHOR: Sean McCarthy
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (McCarthy)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, HILLCONN*
RECORDINGS:
Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey, ("Keep your eyes well peeled today") (on NFHMacIsaac01)
Sean McCarthy, "Mountain Tae" (on Sean McCarthy, "The Wandering Man," EMI CD ISRMCD 009 (2002) reissue of EMI (1970))
NOTES [132 words]: Hector MacIsaac and Jerome Downey sing two verses ("keep your eyes well peeled today...." and "A kettle to the butcher and a quart to John....") and the chorus ("Gather up your pots and your old tin cans...."). They follow McCarthy's version ("the tall tall men are on their way") rather than the GEST version ("the excise men are on their way"). The unattributed text and the three audios at GEST Songs of Newfoundland and Labrador site (http://www.wtv-zone.com/phyrst/audio/nfld/03/pots.htm, accessed February 24, 2015) all disagree with the McCarthy and MacIsaac Downey versions on this point. - BS
This song seems to have become quasi-traditional very quickly. Soodlum's Irish Ballad Book, from 1982, already treats it as traditional -- and has a text much altered from McCarthy's. - RBW
Last updated in version 3.6
File: BeDoTHCM

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