> Folk Music > Songs > Magherafelt Hiring Fair

Magherafelt Hiring Fair / Tambo

[ Roud 366 ; G/D 7:1424 ; Henry H748 ; Ballad Index HHH748 ; Mudcat 121720 ; trad.]

Peter Buchan: Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann, John Moulden: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People Roy Palmer: Everyman’s Book of British Ballads

Duncan MacPhee sang Tam Booey in a 1954 recording made by Hamish Henderson that was included in c.1962 on the Prestige album Folksongs & Music From the Berryfields of Blair.

The Irish Country Four sang Magherafelt Hiring Fair in 1971 on their Topic album of songs, ballads and instrumental tunes from Ulster, The Irish Country Four. A.L. Lloyd noted:

A little one-act comedy, this duet song of the hungry widow and the appetising young labourer. Coarser versions of this song exist, particularly in the repertory of travelling people. This version is another from the collection of Sam Henry, who suggests it derives from the late eighteenth century. Magherafelt is in Co. Derry near the westem shore of Lough Neagh. “Sowans (porridge made from oat-husks) and eels” establishes the area.

The Clutha sang Tam Bowie, learned from the singing of Norman Kennedy, live at the Granite Theatre, Westerly, Rhode Island, on 7 October 1981. This recording was included in 2019 on their album Live From Harvard. Gordeanna McCulloch sang it in 1997 on her Greentrax album In Freenship’s Name; Brian Miller spoke Tam Bowie’s lines between the sung verses. She noted:

Source: from the singing of Norman Kennedy
Norman Kennedy sang this for me after an appearance at the Glasgow Tradition Club some 30 years ago, I loved it and asked him for the words. Initially he was reluctant as he felt this was “Nae a sang for a lassie”. He eventually relented (or caved in), I got the words and I’ve been singing it ever since. Songs which recognise that women, as well as men, have sexual needs hold a great deal of appeal for me. The fact that the expression of these needs in this song is so brazen and in places downright ‘coorse’ is, for me anyway, an added bonus.

Frank Harte sang Tambo on his posthumous 2007 album of songs of Irish labour, There’s Gangs of Them Digging. He noted:

This song was colected by Sam Henry in Tobermore in 1938; it is listed in his collection as No. 748 and is titled as The Magherafelt Hiring Fair. He said that at the time he collected it the song was at least 150 years old and that the diet of sowans and eels would establish the locality of the song, by this I presume that he was assuming that the listener would know that Magherafelt, being so close to Lough Neagh, would have a plentiful supply of eels from its famous eel fishery. Sowans was an article of diet in common use in Ireland. It consisted of farinasceous matter extracted from the bran or husks of oats by steeping in water, allowed to ferment slightly and prepared by boiling. Except for the first line of the first verse, the first line of each of the following verses is spoken.

The only other person I have heard singing this song was Valerie Baillie when she sang it as a memebr of The Irish Country Four on one of the old Topic Records, which was recorded in 1971. I have never heard the song sung at a singing session. The song takes into consideration all the various requirements that would be in the mind of a labourer lookig to hire, such as what wages he would have, how he would be fed, and where he would sleep. He certainly did much better than the spailpin that hired to the Galbally Farmer in Tippereary. Unlike Sam Henry’s very proper ending with the marriage of the couple, in some of the other versions of the song, when the labourer declined to sleep with the weans, the woman of the house did indeed offer her the comfort of her own bed.

While I have only heard one version in Ireland, there are several versions that have been collected in England and Scotland. Peter Kennedy recorded one from Dicky Lashbrook in Devon in 1950 called Bargain With Me or Billy Boy. The first publication of the song was in Peter Buchan’s Ancient Ballads and Songs of the North of Scotland in 1828, although the song is much older than the date of publication. The different versions of the song vary in the directness of their sexual references and bawdy content.

Lyrics

Frank Harte sings Tambo

Will you hire with me Tambo, Tambo?
Will you hire with me my heart and my Jo?
Will you hire with me say you and say I?
And what an’ a rantin’ young widow am I.

Well what’s the wages mistress?
Two pounds five shillings Tambo, Tambo,
Two pounds five shillings my heart and my Jo,
Two pound five shillings say you and say I…
And what an’ a rantin’ young widow am I.

Ah that’s too little wages mistress!
Then two pounds ten shillings Tambo, Tambo,
Then two pounds ten shillings my heart ad my Jo,
Two pounds ten shillings say you and say I…
And what anan’rantin’ young widow am I.

Well what’s the diet then mistress?
Sowans and eels Tambo, Tambo,
Sowans and eels my heart and my Jo,
Sowans and eels say you and say I…
And what an’ a rantin’ young widow am I.

Ah that’s too slippy a diet mistress!
Ah then potatoes and beef Tambo, Tambo,
Then potatoes and beef my heart and my Jo,
Then potatoes and beef say you and say I…
And what an’ a rantin’ young widow am I.

Where will I lie mistress?
You ’ll sleep in the loft Tambo, Tambo,
You ’ll sleep in the loft my heart and my Jo,
You ’ll sleep in the loft say you and say I…
And what an’ a rantin’ young widow am I.

Ah but the rats they might bite me mistress!
Then you ’ll lie with the weans Tambo, Tambo,
Then you ’ll lie with the weans my heart and my Jo,
Then you ’ll lie with the weans say you and say I…
And what an’ a rantin’ young widow am I.

Ah but the weans might kick me mistress,
Well then we ’ll get married Tambo, Tambo,
Well then we ’ll get married Tambo, Tambo,
Well then we ’ll get married say you and say I.
And what an’ a rantin’ young widow am I.

I’m as good as hired mistress.