Fiddler's Green

Fiddler's Green

words and music John Conolly
As I roved by the dockside one evening so fair

To view the salt waters and take in the salt air

I heard an old fisherman singing a song

Oh, take me away boys me time is not long

(refrain)
Wrap me up in me oilskin and blankets

No more on the docks I'll be seen

Just tell me old shipmates, I'm taking a trip mates

And I'll see you someday on Fiddlers Green

Now Fiddler's Green is a place I've heard tell

Where the fishermen go if they don't go to hell

Where the weather is fair and the dolphins do play

And the cold coast of Greenland is far, far away

Now when you're in dock and the long trip is through

There's pubs and there's clubs and there's lassies there too

And the girls are all pretty and the beer is all free

And there's bottles of rum growing on every tree.

Where the skies are all clear and there's never a gale

And the fish jump on board with one swish on their tail

Where you lie at your leisure, there's no work to do

And the skipper's below making tea for the crew

Now I don't want a harp nor a halo, not me

Just give me a breeze and a good rolling sea

I'll play me old squeeze-box as we sail along

With the wind in the riggin to sing me a song

(from Brobdingnagnian Bards)

My post about ramp hunting included a photo of an old cabin known as Fiddler's Green. The cabin was the homeplace of blogger Matthew Burns' and Jason Burns' great-great-grandparents, and Matthew believes it was built about 1820.

The discussion got us wondering about the term Fiddler's Green. Blog friend Rowan told us it was an old Irish legend about a place where old sailors go when they die--a land where the music and laughter never ends (which sounds like a lovely place to me). Her reference to a legend got my interest spiked, so I began browsing online.

The song above, written by John Conolly (or Conelly or Connolly, depending on the source) tells the story as well as anything else I could locate. There are several YouTube videos of performers singing the tune, but this one by the Dubliners is my favorite. Wikipedia also has a brief description of the same story, along with a poem that was included in a US Cavalryman's manual in 1923. But that poem is an entirely different story from the one above, and not likely what I was looking for.

I found a bit more on the website Fiddlers Green Orlando:

The Legend of Fiddlers Green.

"They say that an old salt who is tired of seagoing should walk inland with an oar over his shoulder. When he comes to a pretty little village deep in the country and the people ask him what he is carrying...he will know that he's found Fiddlers Green. The people give him a seat in the sun outside the Village Inn with a glass of grog that refills itself every time he drains the last drop and a pipe forever smoking with fragrant tobacco. From then onwards he has nothing to do but enjoy his glass and pipe and watch the maidens dancing to the music of a fiddle on Fiddlers Green." A fresh new poem about this old story can be found on Allpoetry.

But is this actually a song or story about a fiddlers at all? "A last maybe surprising note is that the phrase Fiddler's Green has no relation with violinists whatsoever, but is derived from fiddling or more specific a fid, which is a tool used to split ropes better known as marlinespike." Which, I assume, has something to do with fishing, since a marlin is a fish. So the link from fiddling to fishermen can be made here, perhaps? For more about the marlinespike, read what Commander Bob has to say. Once again, a simple question leads me into new waters and new words for Scrabble (how many points would that be?)

The only book reference I have been able to find so far is Seafaring Lore and Legend which covers this topic and many other legends of the waters.

After more searching, I happened on this:

"Cloughmore, known locally as "The Big Stone", (Irish: An Chloch Mhór, the big stone), is a huge granite boulder found about 1,000 feet above the village of Rostrevor, County Down, Northern Ireland, on a relatively flat area on the side of Slieve Martin (or Slieve Meen) mountain, known as Fiddler's Green." Aha!

photo and text above from http://www.irishdh.com/2006news/newsmay06championspreview1.htm

According to scientists, the stone was put there during the Ice Ages when the glaciers left this part of the world. A local story claims that actually the stone was thrown to its resting place by Finn McCool during a fight between the legendary Irish folk hero and the Ice Giant, Ruscaire. I like this version better!

Cloughmore is in County Down in the north of Ireland, where the Ulster Scots lived. So here perhaps is the source of the name for the cabin and for the legend of "Fiddler's Green"-- a green Irish mountain in the County Down, by the side of the lough. A place for sailors to finally rest, where they can see the water and remember their seafaring days.

Now, to learn more about ice giants...