Analysis: Whether you know it as the Wexford or Enniscorthy Carol, this beautiful composition has travelled the world
Every year on Christmas Eve, when all the preparations for the big day were done, my mother would announce that she wanted to play her records. The lid was lifted on the Philips Three In One and the stylus arm was carefully placed over LPs by The Chieftains, Na Filí and The Clancy Brothers with Tommy Makem. It was a big change from the usual high octane sounds of Horslips, Thin Lizzy and The Boomtown Rats that regularly filled the cosy sitting room.
My mother's carefully selected songs were all about the joy and mystery of Christmas. These included Oh Holy Night, Don Oíche Úd i mBeithil and The Wren, The Wren. My father was a big music fan and an avid collector of 78s and LPs – Count John McCormack was his favourite – but always took a back seat during my mother’s 'Christmas Recitals’ until she called upon him to find their copy of Good People All.
From Folklore.ie, the Enniscorthy Carol as performed in Enniscorthy
Like clockwork, my father would humorously reply ‘Oh, you mean The Enniscorthy Carol?’ placing a strong emphasis on the name of his native Wexford town. As he gently took the precious recording from its sleeve, he would tell the familiar story of this sublime nativity song. We’d heard the bones of the story many many times before, but we listened attentively before the gentle hiss and crackle of the needle gave way to its opening lines: "Good people all, this Christmas-time, Consider well and bear in mind…"
The very idea that a Christmas carol was named after the sloping town of Enniscorthy was a marvel to us. My father’s version of the carol’s history was that a man named William Grattan Flood, the organist and choirmaster at St. Aidan's Cathedral, had collected the song in 1912 from an elderly couple living just outside the town and it was first taught to schoolchildren at St. Aidan's National School.
In 1928, Flood’s transcription of the carol was published in the Oxford Book of Carols and it began to grow in popularity across the world. I seem to remember asking my father how old the carol was. Some people, my father said, think that it’s from Medieval times and others say that it was composed much later. He was unsure as to whether the carol originated in England or Ireland, but he was certain that its correct name was the Enniscorthy and not the Wexford Carol. After all, he said, it was first written down and performed there.
Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma perform The Wexford Carol
Like many things in life, the true story of the Enniscorthy Carol is a bit more complex. The tune on which it is based appears to be Celtic in origin, but Its lyrics can be found in part in a number of older English carols.
A note in the Oxford Book of Carols confirms that Flood first heard the air just outside Enniscorthy. The editors tell us that Flood revised the lyrics and that some of the carol’s verses were previously to be found in a number of older English carols – most notably one gathered in Castleton, Derbyshire. We also know that elements of the Enniscorthy Carol can be seen in an earlier 17th Century broadside ballad called The Sinner's Redemption.
That the Enniscorthy Carol ‘borrowed’ verses from other earlier carols is not that unusual. In a pre-literate age, song lyrics were changed and adapted with great regularity as they moved from place to place. It’s also possible that whoever wrote the lyrics acted as a sort of ‘magpie’ borrowing verses from a range of sources to create a new song.
The Palestrina Choir Dublin's version of Wexford Carol
Whatever its history and whether you know it as The Wexford or Enniscorthy Carol, this beautiful composition has travelled the world. It has been recorded by numerous artists including Alison Krauss, Julie Andrews and Nanci Griffith. My personal favourite is the version recorded by Dublin’s Palestrina Choir in 1987. Everytime I hear the opening lines, I am transported to a time when, in my child’s mind, it was, as if Bethlehem and Enniscorthy were one and the same.
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