Old Dungarvan Oak

by **Madra Rua** Sun Aug 08, 2010 5:59 pm

I started learning this to sing at a session because I thought it was traditional, and cute. Then I did a bit of research, and found that it's actually a modern song, written about 1970, by Frank Hennessy.

The Old Dungarvan Oak
As I roved out one morning
Going to Dungarvan Fair
I spied a pretty, fair maid
With the sunlight in her hair
Her way, it was delightful
Her voice rang like a bell
And as I overtook her
I asked if she was well

Chorus:

Oh, Lay down your woolen shawl, me love
I swear it is no joke
And I'll tell to you the story of
The Old Dungarvan Oak

As we approached Dungarvan
The girl at me did stare
And she asked me why I raised my hat
To a tree so old and bare
I told her of the legend
If the tree should e'er come down
There'd be a great disaster
And Dungarvan would be drowned CHORUS

Then she started laughing
My face grew very red
And she said that only fools believed
What those old legends said
Her laughter was contagious
For the truth to you I'll tell
By the time I reached the market place
I began to laugh as well CHORUS

As I sit here by my fireside
It's the autumn of my life
And the darling girl I met that day
Is now my darling wife
I have a lovely daughter
And a son to push my yoke
And all because I raised my hat
To the Old Dungarvan Oak CHORUS

Then I found a thread on Mudcat with a post by the song's author, Frank Hennessy:

Hi Folks,

Thought I'd better get involved as I've had so many calls about this.

The original version was written in, I think,1970.

The Hennessys had returned from a year in Ireland and had become quite heavily involved in the Welsh language folk scene back home.

The Welsh writer and TV Director Rhydderch Jones took us on a "cultural" tour of Wales, which involved a visit to the Priory Oak. At this time the old stump still stood in it's original spot in the middle of the road going into Carmarthen.

Rhydderch told me the story about Merlin planting the acorn and casting a spell over it.
The prophecy went " If the old oak tree shall 'ere come down - then will drown Carmarthen Town".
My chorus was half written for me and the rest of the song came fairly quickly.
Rhydderch wrote a Welsh version which was an immediate success and it was not long before the song became accepted in Wales as a bilingual standard.

I'd had a big hit in Ireland the previous year with another song, called "The Gypsy", and the Irish wanted a follow up.

Almost in jest I suggested that Dungarvan, which is where my paternal family came from, sounded very much like Carmarthen. Two months later I had my second Irish number one and the first Dual-nationality contemporary folk song was born.

In the early days I had trouble convincing people that the song was contemporary and not traditional, but over the years this little ditty, in all its forms has become central to my musical life, and I'm glad to say, is much loved by both the people of Wales and Ireland....

The legend says that Carmarthen is where the wizard Merlin was born, and that he planted an acorn as a boy with the following prophesy:

"When Merlin's tree shall tumble down,
Carmarthen then will surely drown.

(An alternate ending is sometimes: "Then shall fall Carmarthen Town."

This is a picture of the Priory Oak aka the Carmarthen Oak aka the Old Dungarvan Oak in 1936. It was taken away entirely in 1978, but a piece of it was put in the Carmarthen Museum.

Apart from some rather wild stormy, weather the year the tree was finally removed, Carmarthen is still located where it's always been in Wales.