> Folk Music > Songs > The Rocks of Bawn
The Rocks of Bawn
[
Roud 3024
; Henry H139
; Ballad Index DTrockba
; DT ROCKBANN
; Mudcat 2414
, 6479
; trad.]
Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann, John Moulden: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People Colm O Lochlainn: Irish Street Ballads
Séamus Ennis sang The Rocks of Bawn on the 1955 Columbia anthology The World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Ireland. Alan Lomax noted:
In the 17th century, Cromwell’s army drove the Irish to “Hell or to Connaught”, the submarginal lands of the western coast, where they learned to subsist on “rocks, bogs, mountains, salt water, and seaweed”. To the hired farm labourer in this part of the world, even the British army seemed a refuge. This ballad, which may have been originally composed in Gaelic, has become one of the most popular in Ireland. (In fact, it is most unlikely to have an Irish origin, but may have been composed for the ballad sheets on which it circulated.)
Joe Heaney sang The Rocks of Bawn, recorded by Dick Swettenham and Bill Leader at Olympic Studios, London, 1962 or 1963, on his 1963 Topic album Irish Traditional Songs in Gaelic & English. This track was also included in 1998 on the Topic anthology Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough (The Voice of the People Volume 5). A.L. Lloyd noted on the original album:
In 1652, Oliver Cromwell ‘subdued’ Ireland, a process that often recurred in history before and since. Many Catholic landholders were dispossessed and forced to take their families and belongings beyond the Shannon, to the hard country of Connaught. While English and Scottish Protestant newcomers settled on the lusher vacated farms, the dispossessed Irish hacked out a thin living among the “rocks, bogs, salt water and seaweed” of the barren west coast. In the ensuing centuries, to many a farmhand even the British Army offered better prospects than the stony plough-defying soil of Mayo, Galway and Clare. The lament of the Connaught ploughman has become one of the most popular of all Irish folk songs, seemingly within the last few years. The older folk music collections of Petrie and P.W. Joyce do not include The Rocks of Bawn, and even O Lochlainn’s Irish Street Ballads (1939), though it presents the words, does not attach to them the hexatonic tune that has now become so familiar.
Joe Heaney also sang The Rocks of Bawn on the 1965 Folkways album Irish Music in London Pubs. Séamus Ennis noted:
Many a discussion and argument has taken place as to where The Rocks of Bawn were or are. Some say that Bawn was out foreign. More say that it was a barren place in the north of Ireland. I, Séamus Ennis, think that the name applies to a rocky and barren district of northwest Cork and northeast Kerry which is called Claodach, because I heard an old woman in west Cork sing a line which she recalled in Gaelic “Is eagal liom na feadfair-se leaca an bhain do threabhadh” which means “I am afraid you’ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn”.
So it would seem that this song is a folk translation from some old Gaelic agricultural workman’s theme.
Steve Thornton and Jack White sang The Rocks of Bawn in 1972 on the Living Folk “garland of traditional folk songs and ballads”, Pleasant and Delightful Vol. 2.
Graham Shaw sang The Rocks o’ Bawn in 1978 on his Traditional Sound album I Am the Minstrel. He noted:
I learnt the basic melody of this song from Tony Capstick and Bruce Baillie of Cleckheaton found the words for me. I’m very grateful to them both as this is a song of which I never tire.
Arcady sang The Rocks of Bawn 1n 1995 on their Dara album Many Happy Returns.
John Jones sang Rocks of Bawn in 2009 on his Westpark album Rising Road. He noted:
From Joe Heaney of Connemara. You can hear the original recording on The Voice of the People (TSCD655). This compilation is a great source of information on the lives of traditional singers.
The Water Chorus sang The Rocks of Bawn on their 2026 EP ‘Scorn’.
Lyrics
Séamus Ennis sings The Rocks of Bawn
Come, all you loyal heroes, wherever that you be,
Don‘t hire with any master till you know what your work will be,
For you must rise up early, from the clear daylight till dawn,
Or I’m afraid you‘ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn.
And my curse attend you, Sweeney, you have me nearly robbed,
You‘re sitting by the fireside with your
You‘re sitting by the fireside from the clear daylight till dawn,
And I‘m afraid you‘ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn.
And my shoes they are well worn now and my stockings they are thin,
And my heart is always trembling afraid I might give in,
My heart is always trembling, from the clear daylight till dawn,
And I‘m afraid I‘ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn.
And I wish the Queen of England would write to me in time,
And place me in some regiment all in my youth and prime,
I‘d fight for Ireland‘s glory from the clear daylight till dawn,
And I never would return again to plough the rocks of Bawn.
Joe Heaney sings The Rocks of Bawn
Come all you loyal heroes where ever that you be
Don’t work for any master ’til you know what your work will be
For you must rise up early from the clear daylight ’til dawn
And I’m afraid you’ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn.
O rise up lovely Sweeney and give your horse some hay
And give him a good feed of oats before you go away
Don’t feed him on soft turnip; put him out on your green lawn
Or I’m afraid he’ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn.
And my curse attend you Sweeney, you had me nearly robbed
You’re sitting by the fireside with a dudeen in your gob
You’re sitting by the fireside from the clear daylight till dawn
And I’m afraid you’ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn.
And my shoes they are well worn now; my stockings they are thin
My heart is always trembling, afraid I might give in
My heart is always trembling from the clear daylight till the dawn
And I’m afraid I’ll never be able to plough the rocks of Bawn.
And I wish the Queen of England would send for me in time
And place me in some regiment, all in my youth and prime
I would fight for Ireland’s glory from the clear daylight till the dawn
And I never would return again to plough the rocks of Bawn.