Having spent some days with the ‘Rabbit’ we are now going to visit with his larger cousin ‘The Hare’.
‘Hare Spell’ is a song recorded by Faye Hield backed by Rob Harbron, Sam Sweeney, Ben Nicholls and Ewan MacPherson. The song and tune conjure an ancient spell to become a hare…it’s totally mesmerising and is taken from her album ‘Wrackline’ released in 2020. Hield writes:Taken from Isobel Gowdie’s witch trial confessions of 1662 where she shares this spell to become a hare. Following the pattern of finding magic within, the melody comes out of the words, using the corresponding note name letters to build the frame of the tune.
“The Bonny Black Hare” was sung by A.L.Lloyd accompanied by fiddler Dave Swarbrick in 1965 on the Topic theme album of traditional songs of love and lust. This is a rare traditional song, brought to life by the tune given it by Bert Lloyd in the 1960s. An exquisite mixture of bawdiness and tenderness. Steeleye Span sang Lloyd’s version of The Bonny Black Hare on their 2006 album Bloody Men. A December 2006 live recording from Hove Centre was released in 2009 on their CD plus DVD Live at a Distance.
“White Hare” is track recorded by Jack Sharp, the frontman of Wolf People, from his solo album ‘Good Times Older’ in April 2020 via Stick in the Wheel’s own label “From Here Records”. Joined by Ian Carter of Stick in the Wheel, together, they set off at a fair pace, depicting the speed of the hare which can outrun any hunting dog in England. There are some fascinating superstitions surrounding the hare, both in the UK and Ireland, ranging from luck and bad luck. They were also believed by some to be witches in disguise.
“The Creggan White Hare” is an Irish folk song written by James Molloy. It was first recorded by Paddy Tunney in 1944. The song describes coursing events that took place in Creggan, County Tyrone. After Barney Conway failed to catch the hare while out hunting, he joins a group of sportsmen, “with pedigree greyhounds”, to hunt the hare, who eludes them. Daoirí Farrell sang The Creggan White Hare on his 2009 CD The First Turn. He noted: I learned the words of this song from an Andy Irvine album. The song means a lot to me as I have kept dogs since childhood. Each time I sing this song I can see the story unfold and it brings me back to my childhood. Like me the song is not really that old. It can be traced back to the 1930s when it was written by a Tyrone man Barney Conway (he appears in the 2nd verse). The song is dedicated to my friend Mick Kelly who owned a dog called Bonny Black Belle, which he had for a short period of time before she was taken on him.
“The Hare’s Lament” is a song printed in Gale Huntington’s Songs of the People, a collection of Ulster folk songs from the Sam Henry Collection. This is one of several Ulster hunt songs, which depicts the hare’s side of the hunt. The action centres around the borders of the counties Antrim and Derry. The ‘Staghan’ mentioned is the townland of Moneystaghan, Co. Derry. Hare coursing is very popular in the North of Ireland and in some parts the ‘grew’ (greyhound) population exceeds the human. Alongside this, in some mountainy areas, they hunt the hare on foot with beagles. The song is performed here by the very talented Susan McKeown from her “Bushes and Briars” CD.
