‘This song tells of the love of a wealthy young protestant Ulsterman for a poor Irish Catholic girl. The two come to an agreement about religious matters after a rather naive exchange of views. The song must be understood in relation to the social background of Ulster life since 1798. It is the folk-expression of the Catholic faith of the ordinary people against the principles of the Reformation held by their political masters. 

‘The tune is interesting as being the complete version of the half-tune printed in Herbert Hughes’ Irish Country Songs (1909) as The Lover’s Curse. The words are from Donegal where there are at least five townlands called Dunmore’ (A Wild Bees Nest, Seán O Boyle).

The song carrier within the family with whom The Banks of Dunmore was first associated was ‘Big’ Pat Meehan of Teamhair (Tamur on the OS maps), born c. 1820. So, within the family, this song has come down six generation to the present. 

Pat Meehan was an adult man of twenty-five at the time of the outbreak of the Great Famine yet he lived into the first decade of the 20th century and Brigid Tunney recalled hearing her grandfather sing when she was a teenager. 

The Banks of Dunmore almost certainly dates to the early decades of the 19th century. It has echoes of the disputations that arose at that time between Church of Ireland proselytisers, who were then very active, and the Catholic laity and clergy who were beginning to peek their heads above the parapet after several generations of the anti-Catholic Penal Law. The text is remarkable for including the word ‘transubstantiation’, an inclusion that must be unique. This is a glorious song to sing. (JT)