Limerick is Beautiful (Colleen Bawn)

DESCRIPTION: The city of "Limerick is beautiful ... The girl I love ... lives in Garryowen, And is called the Colleen Bawn." If I were "Emperor of Russia ... Or Julius Caesar, or the Lord Lieutenant" I'd give up everything to have her be my bride.
AUTHOR: Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1860 (in play "The Colleen Bawn")
KEYWORDS: love lyric nonballad beauty Ireland courting rejection lover
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont) Ireland US(MW)
REFERENCES (6 citations):
O'Conor-OldTimeSongsAndBalladOfIreland, p. 12, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text)
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 72, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean-FlyingCloud, pp. 23-24, "Coleen Bawn" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 34, "The Colleen Bawn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dime-Song-Book #16, p. 14, "The Colleen Bawn" (1 text)
Hylands-Mammoth-Hibernian-Songster, p. 15, "Limerick is Beautiful" (1 text)
Roud #3002
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Colleen Bawn (Limerick Is Beautiful)" (on Abbott1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 26(100), "Limerick is Beautiful", P Brereton (Dublin), c.1867; 2806 b.11(40), "Limerick is Beautiful"; also Harding B 26(101), "Colleen Bawn" ("Limerick is beautiful as every body knows")
LOCSinging, sb20290b, "Limerick is Beautiful!", H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wreck of the Varty" (tune)
cf. "Over Hills and Mountains" (theme: singer would give up the crown or great wealth he doesn't have for love)
SAME TUNE:
Limerick is Beautiful (Rebel Version ) (DT, LIMBEAUT)
NOTES [360 words]: Given how often most of the characters the singer envies were assassinated, I might be tempted to give up the job too. - RBW
Fowke notes that the song was included in Boucicault's play, and that he is therefore sometimes credited with authorship. A more literary version was penned by the Irish poet Michael Scanlan. - PJS
The song is from Dion Boucicault's play "The Colleen Bawn" which opened September 10, 1860 at the Adelphi Theatre, London [sources: Templeman Library University of Kent site "Richard Fawkes Dion Boucicault Collection" (gives attribution for "composer" as "Levey, R. M., Mr"; "The Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900" at Eastern Michigan University site for English Language and Literature).]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b includes the statement "Sung by Dan Bryant in the great Irish drama, the Colleen Bawn, at Wallack's Theatre, New-York."
"Garryowen (Garrai Eoin, 'the garden of Eoin') on the edge of the old city of Limerick Eoin is the older Irish form of the name John" (source: Odds and Ends from May 26, 2001 online edition issue Limerick Leader site)
Broadside LOCSinging sb20290b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
For background on Dion Boucicault, see the notes to "Cruiskeen Lawn."
Brian Miller suggests to me that Dean-FlyingCloud's song should not be linked with the "Limerick is Beautiful" texts, and points to several broadsides that are of his "Coleen Bawn" type. He probably has a point -- one of the broadsides is headed "The New Version of the Colleen Bawn," and neither it nor Dean's version mention the characters in "Limerick is Beautiful," nor Garryowen; the only places in it are Limerick and the Shannon. But this song seems to be rare, and the theme is similar; if a fragment turned up, it probably would not be clear which version it goes with. So I'm going to continue to keep them together for now, while being aware that there were two separate compositions. (With a fair chance that Dean's song is a recomposition of Boucicault's, or possibly the reverse.) Roud lumps them. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.6
File: OCon012

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