All Around Green Island's Shore

DESCRIPTION: A man brags to a woman about the virtues of his boat, his other possessions, and his willingness to beat his rival to win the girl. The girl replies comically in the negative.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1923 (Murphy, Songs Their Fathers Sung)
KEYWORDS: courting bragging rejection
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield-BalladsAndSeaSongsOfNewfoundland 135, "All Around Green Island Shore" (1 text)
Doyle-OldTimeSongsAndPoetryOfNewfoundland, "All Around Green Island's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune): p. 65 in the 2nd edition, p. 9 in the 3rd
Blondahl-NewfoundlandersSing, p. 72, "All Around Green Island's Shore" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Murphy, _Songs Their Fathers Sung: For Fishermen: Old Time Ditties_, James Murphy Publishing, 1923 (PDF available from the Memorial University of Newfoundland web site), p. 5, "Around Green Island Shore" (1 text)
Roud #6353
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Green Island Shore
NOTES [121 words]: The "Trinity" mentioned in the song is perhaps in Trinity Bay but there is a "Green Island Cove" and a "Green Island Brook" far away in the Strait of Belle Isle. - SH
The "Green Island" in Trinity Bay is near the northwest entrance to the bay, just outside Catalina Harbour. It isn't large, but it would be a significant landmark for coasting ships traveling from New Bonaventure or Trinity to Catalina or Bonavista. Like a lot of small islands around Newfoundland, there were a lot of shipwrecks there. That of course doesn't mean that it is the Green Island of the song; the population in its immediate vicinity was small.
Doyle3 cites "Ballads and Sea Songs of Newfoundland" [Greenleaf & Mansfield, 1933] as the source. - BS
Last updated in version 6.0
File: Doy65

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