The Fiddler of Dooney

The Fiddler of Dooney

When I play on my fiddle in Dooney,
Folk dance like a wave of the sea;
My cousin is priest in Kilvarnet,
My brother in Mocharabuiee.

I passed my brother and cousin:
They read in their books of prayer;
I read in my book of songs
I bought at the Sligo fair.

When we come at the end of time
To Peter sitting in state,
He will smile on three old spirits,
But call me first through the gate;

For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle,
And the merry love to dance:

And when the folk there spy me,
They will all come up to me,
With 'Here is the fiddler of Dooney!'
And dance like a wave of the sea.
                   -W.B. Yeats

"The Fiddler of Dooney" is a poem by William Butler Yeats first published in 1892.

In popular culture

Dooney Rock is a small hill overlooking Lough Gill in County Sligo. The rock is located just outside Sligo itself. The prestigious instrumental competition held in Sligo and known at the Fiddler of Dooney Competition is also named after the poem.

Winners of the Fiddler of Dooney Competition 2016

Junior Winners

• 1st place: Ademar O'Connor
• 2nd place: Ellen O'Gorman
• 3rd place: Seamus O'Gorman

Senior Winners

• 1st place: Jason McGuinness
• 2nd place: Caoimhe Kearins
• 3rd place: Clare Anne Kearns

See also

• List of works by William Butler Yeats

Popular culture

• The Spanish troubadour Rafa Bocero has set the poem to music, and translated several verses into Spanish. He performed the song at the Yeats Society Sligo headquarters en 2015. And the song was recorded in a recording studio in Sligo, in 2017. With musicians such the Irish violinist Steve Wickham
• In his LP Branduardi canta Yeats (1986), Angelo Branduardi sings an italian version of this poem.