I wish I was in Carrighfergus
Only for nights in Ballygrant
I would swim over the deepest ocean,
The deepest ocean to be by your side.
But the sea is wide and I can’t swim over
And neither have I wings to fly
If I could find me a handsome boatsman
To carry me over to my love and die
My childhood days bring back sad reflections
Of happy times I spent so long ago,
My boyhood friends and my own relations
Have all passed on now like melting snow.
But I’ll spend my days in endless roaming,
Soft is the grass, my bed is free.
Ah, to be back now in Carrighfergus,
On that long road down to the sea.
Chorus:
But the sea is wide and I can’t swim over
And neither have I wings to fly
If I could find me a handsome boatsman
To carry me over to my love and die
But in Kilkenny, it is reported,
On marble stones there, as black as ink.
With gold and silver I did transport her
But I’ll say no more now ’til I get a drink.
For I’m drunk today, but then I’m seldom sober
A handsome rover from town to town
Ah, but I am sick now, my days are over
Come all you young men and lay me down.
Chorus.
****
That is an old Irish song called Carrighfergus.
I think of Carrighfergus as Grandpa’s song. You need to be able to read the song figuratively to understand why. In the Bible wisdom and understanding is personified as a woman, and that is key to understanding the song my way. And the being drunk, is, of course, only figurative for the state the person finds themselves in.
I don’t know if it shows artistic sensibility to reinterpret an old Irish song into a poetic lament on Alzheimer’s’s, but in my mind I did it. And to me the lyrics are terribly, terribly, sad in a way they never were before. For someone slowly dying from Alzheimer’s’s the gulf between them and their former wisdom and intelligence is vast. The sea is wide, and they can’t get over.
For the record, I think someone told me that Grandpa wanted the song Will The Circle Be Unbroken at his funeral (I think the full lyrics to that are here). So, whatever songs I have applied to him, that is the one he would take for himself.
As a foot note: I got the Carrighfergus lyrics posted above from here. I first heard a version of it sung by Loreena McKennit from her album Elemental. However, she sings a shortened version, and when I looked for the lyrics I found the longer version posted above, and thought it more fitting. The lyrics to the Loreena McKennitt version are here. I don’t know how many variants there are–as is common with old traditional songs, there seems to be many. I found at least one more minor variant here.
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