Kathleen Mavourneen

"Kathleen Mavourneen" is a song, written in 1837, composed by Frederick Nicholls Crouch with lyrics by Marion Crawford. It was popular during the American Civil War. "Mavourneen" is a term of endearment derived from the Irish Gaelic "mo mhuirnín," meaning "my beloved."

The song plays a prominent role in Michael Shaara's Civil War historical novel "The Killer Angels" and its film adaptation "Gettysburg". It is recalled by Confederate Brigadier General Lewis A. Armistead that the song was sung at a dinner at the home of Armistead's best friend, now Union Major General Winfield Scott Hancock and his wife Almira, at the U.S. Army garrison in Los Angeles, California in 1861 (at which time Armistead was a major and Hancock was a captain). This was the night before Armistead and several other Southern officers were to depart for the Confederacy, having resigned their US Army commissions. Armistead and Confederate Brigadier General Richard B. Garnett, who was also present at the dinner, are killed and Hancock is severely wounded as Armistead's and Garnett's brigades assault the position defended by Hancock's II Corps on Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg during Pickett's Charge. In the film, "Kathleen Mavourneen" is sung once by an Irish tenor at the Confederate camp, and thereafter is used frequently as a theme in the music score by Randy Edelman.

"Kathleen Mavourneen" also the inspiration for a movie starring Theda Bara in 1919. Irish and Catholic groups protested not only the depiction of Ireland, but of a Jewish actress in the leading role. Fox Film Corporation pulled the film after several movie-theater riots and bomb threats.

Lyrics

"Kathleen Mavourneen" (1837)
Words Mrs. Marion Crawford
Music by Frederick Nicholls Crouch, 1808-1896

1.
Kathleen mavourneen! the gray dawn is breaking,
The horn of the hunter is heard on the hill,
The lark from her light wing the bright dew is shaking,
Kathleen mavourneen, what slumbering still?

[CHORUS]
Oh! hast thou forgotten how soon we must sever?
Oh! hast thou forgotten this day we must part,
It may be for years, and it may be forever,
Oh! why art thou silent thou voice of my heart?
It may be for years, and it may be forever,
Then why art thou silent Kathleen mavourneen?

2.
Kathleen mavourneen, awake from thy slumbers,
The blue mountains glow in the sun's golden light,
Ah! where is the spell that once hung on thy numbers,
Arise in thy beauty, Thou star of my night,
Arise in thy beauty, Thou star of my night.

[CHORUS]
Mavourneen, mavourneen, my sad tears are falling,
To think that from Erin and thee I must part,
It may be for years, and it may be forever,
Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?
It may be for years, and it may be forever,
Then why art thou silent, thou voice of my heart?