Fair o' Balnaminna, The (The Lass Among the Heather)

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets a shepherdess and offers to marry her. She is happy at home with her parents. He asks for a parting kiss. They "kissed and kissed again" She approves and he will ask her father (or "she's his lassie" or they marry with "bairnies").
AUTHOR: Hugh McWilliams (source: Moulden-McWilliams)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Moulden-McWilliams)
KEYWORDS: courting marriage dialog sheep
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #44, p. 1, "The Fair o' Balnaminna" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan4 873, "The Fair o' Balnaminna" (12 texts plus a single verse on p. 567, 7 tunes)
Porter/Gower-Jeannie-Robertson-EmergentSingerTransformativeVoice #35, pp. 175-176, "Fair o' Balnafannon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-FolksongsSungInUlster 4, "The Lass Among the Heather Oh!" (1 text, 1 tune)
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 158, "The Fair of Ballyally-O" (1 text, 1 tune); 169, "The Lass Among the Heather-O" (3 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: John Moulden, Songs of Hugh McWilliams, Schoolmaster, 1831 (Portrush,1993), p. 15, "The Lass among the Heather"
Roud #2894
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(331), "The Blooming Heather" ("As I was coming home"), unknown, n.d.; also 2806 c.14(60), "Blooming Heather"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonnie Lass Among the Heather" (theme) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Fair o' Balquhither
NOTES [22 words]: For the relationship between this song and Paddy Tunney's "Bonnie Lass Among the Heather," see the notes to the latter piece. - (BS, RBW)
Last updated in version 5.3
File: UNFoBal

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography