She Moved Through The Fair
Art Garfunkel, Marianne Faithful, Van Morrison, Bert Jansch, Charlotte Church, Donovan, Boyzone, John McCormack, John Martyn, Sinéad O’Connor, Richard Thompson, Luka Bloom, Shane MacGowan, Loreena McKennitt, The Chieftains, All About Eve, Enter The Haggis, Fergal Sharkey, Sarah Brightman, James Galway, Máire Brennan, Mary Black, and Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, have all had success with She Moved Through The Fair.
And last week Miss Northern Ireland (I wonder what the Sinn Fein position on her is? Don’t be rude!) joined their ranks. Dressed in beaded green silk, Catherine Milligan from Newtownards, sang her way into the Miss World 2006 final by winning the competition’s talent show in Poland. When did Miss World turn into the Rose of Tralee?
She Moved Through The Fair is a cheery little number about a young woman, about to get married, who puts her hand on her fiancee as she tells him, it won’t be long now - I’ll just go get some cigarettes. Of course the next time he sees her she’s dead, doing the silent walk thing at night, but still a bit loose with the hands mind you. Lovely song.
My young love said to me my mother won’t mind
And my father won’t slight you for your lack of kind
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
It will not be long now ’til our wedding DayAnd she went away from me, she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she went onward, just one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lakeThe people were saying no two e’er were wed
But one had a sorrow that never was said
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear
And that was the last that I saw of my dearLast night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came her feet made no din
And she laid her hand on me and this she did say
It will not be long now ’til our wedding day
See Also:
• Broadway in Chicago: Pirate Queen
• Ireland Progress in Eurovision (Belgium Don’t)
• Flatley Troubles Troubles
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
She moved through the fair is a fantastic tune - it is said to originate from medieval Ireland (well the first verse anyways)..
Check out the version by Fergul Sharkey - brilliant….