> Folk Music > Songs > Lovely Armoy
Lovely Armoy
[
Roud 13541
; Henry H9
; Ballad Index HHH009
; trad.]
Nuala Kennedy sang Lovely Armoy on her 2016 album Behave the Bravest.
Malinky sang Lovely Armoy in 2019 on their 20th anniversary album Handsel. They noted:
No source is given for this song, which was published as part of the Songs of the People in January 1924. Armoy is approximately 10 miles north-east of Garryduff, where Mark [Dunlop] grew up. The tune is taken from The Banks of Sullone which Mark learned from the singing of the wonderful singer Nell Ní Chróinín from Co Cork. The song also appears in the repertoires of Eddie Butcher and Joe Holmes, and a fragment was published in the Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society in 1904 from the singing of Jeannie Lamont of Glentaisie, Antrim.
Lyrics
Malinky sings Lovely Armoy
Draw near, my kind friends and relations,
I’m going to take my farewell
I’m bound for a far distant nation,
No longer in Armoy to dwell.
I’m leaving that neat little village
Wherein I was reared as a boy,
And now for to leave you it grieves me,
And part from you, lovely Armoy.
By the banks of that bonnie Bush water,
Where fishes swim neatly and fair,
By those banks I have oftentimes wandered
At evening when free from all care,
By those banks I have oftentimes wandered
At evening when free from employ;
And now for to leave you it grieves me,
And part from you, lovely Armoy.
I’m taking my leave off this evening
As bright Phoebus declines from my view;
I willtake my last walk round the garden
Where the flowers are all sparkled with dew,
With the banks of blown roses all around me.
There a fair maid oft met me with joy;
No wonder it grieves me to leave you
And part from you, lovely Armoy.
We kissed and shook hands and then parted;
I started my course without fail
Till we came to the city of Belfast,
Where our good ship lay ready to sail.
Strict orders were given to board her,
My pen I no longer employ.
And now for to leave you it grieves me,
And part from you, lovely Armoy.