Plough Me in the Barn - Fannae O'Ryderman (BANNED Irish Folk Ballad)
A scandalous Irish folk ballad from the Sticky Sleeve Records vault - too bawdy for the fetes.
Fannae O'Ryderman emerged from the Irish folk scene in the mid-1970s, a ginger-haired singer from County Clare known for her hauntingly beautiful voice and her repertoire of traditional songs. "Plough Me in the Barn" became her signature piece - a slow, intimate ballad that seemed innocent enough until listeners paid attention to the words.
The song tells the age-old tale of a farmer's daughter and a handsome hired hand named Johnny, their secret encounters in the barn, and the inevitable consequences when her father discovers them. What set Fannae's version apart was the explicit detail she included, delivered with such gentle, storytelling grace that audiences were captivated before they realized how shockingly graphic the lyrics truly were.
Fannae performed "Plough Me in the Barn" in small pubs and intimate folk gatherings across Ireland throughout the 1970s. The song was beloved by pub-goers who appreciated its bawdy humor in the grand Irish tradition of risqué folk tales. But when she attempted to perform at family-friendly Irish fetes and traditional festivals, organizers were horrified.
Church groups condemned it as immoral. Festival committees banned her outright. One parish priest in Galway called it "the Devil's lullaby sung by a red-haired temptress." Radio stations refused to play it, citing complaints from conservative listeners. Fannae argued that Irish folk tradition had always included such tales, but in the Ireland of the 1970s, a woman singing such explicit material was deemed particularly inappropriate.
She continued performing the song in sympathetic venues, becoming a cult figure among Ireland's folk music enthusiasts who appreciated both her musical talent and her refusal to censor herself. "Plough Me in the Barn" was never commercially recorded during her active years, surviving only through bootleg recordings from pub sessions.
This version was captured at a small Dublin pub in 1976, recorded on a simple tape machine. It preserves Fannae's warm, intimate delivery and the sparse traditional instrumentation that made her performances so compelling - just her voice, a fiddle, and the truth.
A tale as old as Irish farms, sung with uncommon honesty.
This is a parody and comedy song created using AI to celebrate and satirize music history. All artist names, labels, and backstories are fictional creations of Sticky Sleeve Records for entertainment purposes.
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