Blind Irish girl, The

AKA Sweet Kitty Farrell
Katie Farrell
The pride of Liscarroll
First Published 1895
Writer/composer Robert Donnelly Roud RN22769

Music Hall Performers Robert Donnelly
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Keeping family; England : London; 1930-50
Stewart, Lucy; Scotland : Aberdeenshire; 1960
Green, Harry; ngland : Essex : 1968
Graham, Mrs.; N. Ireland : Co. Antrim; 1969
Baker, Arthur; England : Hampshire; 1971
Ling, George; England : Surrey; 1971
Doherty, Bernard; Ireland : Co. Donegal; 1989		 

In my native home, Lisscarroll
Lives a colleen who is blind
And her name is Katie Farrell
To her the neighbours all are kind
To see her knit beside her mother
You ne'er think her sight was gone
And with Barney, her young brother
She milks the cows at early dawn.

The pride of Lisscarroll is sweet Katie Farrell
With cheeks as red as roses and teeth as white as pearl
The neighbours all pity this colleen so pretty
And, Oh how we all love this blind Irish girl.

Years ago when she was courting
Her young sweetheart, Ned Malloy
One night they were both out walking
With hearts like children full of joy
A storm came on and Kate got frightened
She seized the arm of sweetheart Ned
When both of them were struck by lightning
They found her blind, and he was dead.

What a sad and awful ending
Just when everything seemd bright
For her to lose her future husband
And she, poor girl, to lose her sight
All the neighbours gathered round her
One and all to her were kind
And the reason... her affliction
They pitied her, for she was blind.

An early song composed written and performed by Robert Donnelly, who started his professional life as a performer but became a full time songwriter in the late 1890s. Donnelly specialised in writing sentimental and Irish songs – this song covers both themes.

The Blind Irish Girl was printed in several broadsides and cheap 2oth century songbooks. It was widely sung by amateur performers in Ireland and the UK form 1896 on, and seems to have been sung regularly ever since.

You can here a lovely version at the Irish Traditional Music Archive sung by Bernard Doherty of the Innishowen Traditional Singers’ Circle.

Another interesting version was collected from the singing of John McCrory when he was held as a prisoner of war in a German POW camp during the First World War. You can here a digitally enhanced version made by The Irish Times via this SoundCloud Widget and read more of his story on this BBC website.

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