Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds, The

DESCRIPTION: Hugh Reynolds loves Catherine McCabe who, by perjury, has him condemned to be hanged. "With irons I'm surrounded, in grief I lie confounded, by perjury unbounded; she's the dear maid to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: abduction execution trial lament
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 28, 1826 - Hugh Reynolds executed for the abduction of Catherine M'Cabe (source: Sparling [see notes])
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
OLochlainn-IrishStreetBallads 66, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 134, "She's A Dear Maid To Me" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 380-381, 513, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 152-153, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Roud #2395
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of Sunday's Well" (tune)
NOTES [170 words]: Sparling: "Both families were County Cavan people and Catholics, but there was a feud between them, begun over 'a bit of land.' ... Catharine was very reluctant, and her evidence had to be forced from her. Her uncle was universally credited with being the instigator of the prosecution, and the vindictive inventor of the plot by which Reynolds was captured and convicted. The girl died soon after--of a broken heart, say the gossips; who also report that 'Divine vengeance' followed the M'Cabes."
Duffy: "'She's a dear maid to me.' Perhaps the English reader will require to be told that this is not to be taken in its literal meaning; it is a proverbial expression, implying that he would pay dearly for his acquaintance with her."
"Another popular ballad on the same subject is 'The Abduction of the Quaker's Daughter' by John M'Goldrick." (source: Chapters of Dublin History site: John Edward Walsh, Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1911), "Chapter III. Abduction - Abduction Clubs - The Misses Kennedy - Miss Knox") - BS
File: OLoc066

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