THE TINKERMAN'S DAUGHTER (Mickey MacConnell)
The small birds were lining the bleak autumn branches
Preparing to fly to a far sunny shore
When the tinkers made camp at a bend in the river
Returning from the horse fair in Ballinsloe
Now the harvest being o'er the farmer went walkin
Along the Faele River that borders his land
And 'twas there he first saw her twixt firelight and water
The tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann.
Next morning he rose from a night without resting
He went straight to the tinker and made himself known
And at a pub in Listowell they worked out a bargain
To the tinker a pony, to the daughter a home
Where the trees cast their shadows along the Faele River
The tinker and the farmer they inspected the land
And a white gelding pony was the price they agreed on
For the tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann.
Now the wedding soon o'er the tinkers departed
They were eager to travel on south down the road
But the sound of the iron-shod wheels crunch on gravel
Was as bitter to her as the way she'd been sold
But she tried hard to please him she did all his bidding
She slept in his bed and she worked on the land
But the walls of that cabin pressed tighter and tighter
Around the tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann.
Now as white as the hands of a priest or the hangman
The snow spread it's blanket the next Christmas round
And the tinkerman's daughter slipped out from her bedside
Turned her back to the land and her face to the town
And it's said someone saw her at dusk that same evening
She was making her way out by Liracrumpane
And that was the last that the settled folk saw her
The tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann.
When the north Kerry hills cut the Faele at Listowell
At a farm on its banks lives a bitter old man
And he swears by the shotgun he keeps by his bedside
That he'll kill any tinker that camps on his land
And yet, when he hears iron-shod wheels crunch on gravel
Or a horse in the chaps of a bright caravan
His day's work tormented, his night's sleep demented
By the tinkerman's daughter, the red-headed Ann.
from an album called Circles of Stone, by Ceili's Muse, a 3-woman vocal group from Austin (I think) in Texas.
Background: The Tinkermans Daughter is a beautiful ballad of a farmer who falls in love with the daughter of a tinker
who is passing by. Words and music Michael McConnel
Susanne´s Folksong-Notizen
[1995:] I first learned THE TINKERMAN'S DAUGHTER accompanying Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise ten years
ago. I recently relearned it from Iain MacKintosh. This version was written by Mickey MacConnell, Cathal's brother.
Peter Burnham offers this earlier history: "The Ballad of the Tinker's Daughter was written by Sigerson Clifford,
born in Cork of Kerry parents in 1913, died in 1985. Tim Dennehy put it to music in 1986 and recorded it on his tape 'A
Thimbleful of Song'. There are 11 verses to this poem and whilst it's possible to see how this inspired Mickey
MacConnell to write 'The Tinkerman's Daughter', it tells a more complex story: farmer steals tinker's daughter; she
returns to the gypsies where she dies during child-birth; some years later the boy returns to the farm and is shot by
father (who no longer lets gypsies on his land); before he dies the boy tells farmer who he is; farmer hangs himself;
villagers bury the pair of them and are joined by a red-headed gypsy girl in the funeral procession, who disappears once
the 'mound was patted down'." (Notes Rick Lee, 'Natick')
[1995:] But the story of the song doesn't end there, as [Niamh] Parsons found out after she met MacConnell. The
source material proved to be nearly as interesting as the song. "I eventually got to meet Mickey. [...] Mickey's a
Northerner, he has great insight into Ireland and what he did was he found a man named Sigerson Clifford. Clifford is a
poet who died around 10 years ago. [...] In the middle of one of his books is a poem called 'The Red Headed Ann.'
Mickey MacConnell took that poem, kept the story and wrote a song from it. He never uses even a line from the poem
but he used that story to write a whole new song. But Sigerson Clifford's story continues, to say that a tinker comes on
the farmer's land many years later and as he threatened, the farmer kills the tinker. When he has shot him dead he
discovered that it was his son by the Red Headed Ann. He kills himself and the ghost of the tinkerman's daughter is
seen walking along the road. That was so heavy it couldn't be put into the song but that's how the story really ends,"
Parsons admitted with a laugh. (Dirty Linen 59, Aug/Sept) [2000:] I can assure you all that Micky MacConnell wrote
both the lyrics and the melody. The purpose of the song? His wife asked him to write a song where he had to rhyme
Lyreacrompane with something. I kid you not! (Someone who knows,
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=783#194598, 14 Mar)