Family hope to solve Laois mystery after song is released
Drummer Eddie Bowes, whose great-grandfather was from Laois, pictured with some members of Awen Ensemble. Band file image
A FORGOTTEN piece of Laois heritage has been revived and brought to a new audience through music, thanks to a UK family whose roots trace back to Ballyfin.
David Bowes, whose father was born in Ringstown, Ballyfin in 1937, has welcomed the release of a new musical interpretation of a local poem, known in his family as ‘The Walls Around Ballyfin’.
The poem, believed to have originated in the Ballyfin/Mountrath area about 100 years ago, was passed down orally through generations but appears not to have been formally recorded in any folklore archives.
David’s father emigrated to England in the late 1950s to find work, settling in Leeds with his wife, a schoolteacher and raising four children. Despite building his life in exile, he remained deeply connected to Laois and often recited the poem when reminiscing about his childhood in Ringstown, Ballyfin and Mountrath.
Musician Eddie Bowes, who is David’s son, set the historical poem to music this autumn with the group Awen Ensemble, creating a gentle, atmospheric folk piece that preserves the original words while framing them in a modern Celtic influenced arrangement.
The song is the title track on the group’s new EP ‘The Walls Around Ballyfin’, with release publicity stating: ‘Listen to their mesmerising lead single and title track, on which they bring a new lease of life to a forgotten folk song and a tune written by their drummer Eddie Bowes’s great-grandfather in County Laois, Ireland.’
The song recently featured on BBC Radio 2’s ‘Jazz Show’, hosted by Jamie Cullum, helping introduce this small but meaningful piece of Laois heritage to a wider audience. The track is available on Spotify and can be found on YouTube and Awen Ensemble’s artist page. Eddie plays drums and bodhrán with the Leeds-based alternative folk jazz septet.
David is appealing to local historians, archivists and residents of Ballyfin and the surrounding townlands to help trace the origins of the poem. He hopes that someone in the community may recognise the verse or recall similar songs or folklore connected to Ballyfin House and its demesne.
David said: “This poem was part of my father’s identity and hearing it performed has brought the story full circle for our family. We would love to know whether anyone in Ballyfin or Mountrath remembers this piece or has ever heard of it.”
The song includes the verse: ‘All silent clad in nature/the walls around Ballyfin/the pigeon and the partridge/wild duck and waterhen/all silent clad in nature/breaking back for Ballyfin.’
David can be contacted by email at sewob@btinternet.com. The Awen Ensemble can be contacted at awenensemble@gmail.com.
