37 The Verdant Braes of Skreen
Traditional, arranged and adapted by Robbie O’Connell ©2010
I first came across the Verdant Braes of Skreen in Colm O’Loughlin’s Irish Street Ballads in the 1960s. It sounded to my ear like it was derived from an older Scottish ballad with that classic simple four line melody, possibly A False Young Man. It had previously been published in Herbert Hughes’ Irish Country Songs in 1909. It also appears in the Sam Henry and Steve Roud collections. In 1961, Peter Kennedy, recorded a version of it by the McPeakes.
A brae is a steep bank or a hillside. The term is commonly used in Scotland and Northern Ireland though not much in the south of Ireland. The Skreen referred to in the song is thought to be Ballinascreen in County Derry, now known as Draperstown although there is also a Skreen in County Sligo and a Screen in County Wexford.
There have been many recordings of it in the past seventy years in Ireland, Scotland, and England. The ones I am most familiar with are Mick Hanly, on his classic 1976 album, A Kiss in the Morning Early and Altan on their 2000 album, Another Sky.
It seems that it was once a longer song as there appear to be gaps in the narrative. One Scottish version has these additional verses:
But when your heart was mine, young man, And your hand upon your left breast, You’d have made me believe by the fause oaths you swore That the sun aye rose in the west. I will never believe a man any more, Let his hair be white, black or brown. Save he were on the top of a high gallows tree And swearing he’d wish to come down.
In this adaptation, I made some slight changes to the melody. This recording is from the 2010 Clancy Legacy CD that I made with my cousins, Aoife and Dónal Clancy. We were joined on this track by Shannon Heaton on flute and Oisín McAuley on fiddle.
Lyrics:
THE VERDANT BRAES OF SKREEN
Traditional, arranged and adapted with new music by Robbie O’Connell ©2010.
As I walked out one evening fair By the verdant braes of Skreen I set my back to a hawthorn tree To view the sun in the west country The dew on the forest green A lad I spied by our burn side And a maiden by his knee And he was as dark as the very brown red And she all whey and wan to see All whey and wan was she "Come sit you down on the grass," he said. "On the dewy grass so green For the wee birds all have come and gone Since I my true love have seen Since I my true love seen." "Oh I'll not sit on the grass," she said. "Nor be a love of thine For I hear that you love a Connaught maid And your heart's no longer mine," she said "And your heart's no longer mine." "And I'll not heed what an old man says For his days farewell nigh gone And I'll not heed what a young man says For he's fair to many's the one," she said. "For he's fair to many's the one." "But I will climb a high, high tree And I'll rob a wild bird's nest And back I'll bring whatever I do find To the arms that I love best," she said. "To the arms that I love best."