Henry's Songbook

For Johnny, lovely Johnny, he's a-sailing o'er the main
He's along with other patriarchs to fight the king of Spain

And who will plough the fields now and who will sell the corn
And who will watch the sheep now and keep them neatly shorn
And the stack that's in the haggard, unthreshed it may remain
Since Johnny went a-threshing all in the wars of Spain

And the girls from the Bawnoge in sorrow may retire
And the piper and his bellows go home and blow his fire
For Johnny, lovely Johnny, he's a-sailing o'er the main
He's along with other patriarchs to fight the king of Spain

And the boys will surely miss him when Moneymore comes round
And they grieve that their brave captain is nowhere to be found
And the Peelers must stand idle against their will and grain
For the gallant boy who gave them work now peels the king of Spain

And at wakes or hurling matches your likes we'll seldom see
Till you'll come home again to us, a stóirin gheal mo chroí
And won't you trouble the Buckeens who show us great disdain
Because our eyes are not as bright as those you'll meet in Spain

And if cruel fate does not permit our Johnny to return
His heavy loss we Bantry girls will never cease to mourn
We'll resign ourselves to our sad loss and we'll die in grief and pain
Since Johnny died for freedom's sake in the foreign land of Spain

(as sung by Jimmy Crowley)

[1979] Sir Robert Peel, having become Home Secretary in 1828 prepared a Metropolitan Police Bill, which became law the following year. This created a single police force in the London area (excepting the City) for the first time, and placed it under the direct control of the Home Secretary. [...] the new police later came to be known as 'Bobbies' or 'Peelers' [...]. (Palmer, Ballad History 103)

[1998:] Learned from Tim Lyons of Clare. I mistook the locale for years and didn't realise that there was another Bantry, in North Co. Wexford, where this love song from the Peninsular War comes from. (Jimmy Crowley, notes 'Uncorked!')

See also Mudcat.org
Bawnoge