Transcript

Ceo draíochta sheol oíche (g) ar fán mé
Ar mín-tseamair do tharlag chun suain
I gcoillthibh... 'Om shíorchasadh i gcoillthibh gan áitreabh
Chun go draoi-loch na Blarnan do chuas.
Do shuíos-sa cois crainn go raibh bláth air
Taoibh liom gur tháini' sí suas
An ríg-bhruinneal mhíonla ba bhreátha
Dár shíolraigh ó Adam anuas.

Translation

A magic mist sent me one night astray
On smooth clover I happened to fall asleep
In forests... Turning around endlessly in forests with no abode
To the magic lake of Blarney I went.
I sat by a tree that was in flower
Until she came up by my side
The most beautiful mild regal maiden
Of all who descended from Adam.

Commentary

This is from an aisling ('vision poem') attributed by Father Pádraig Breathnach in Sídh-cheól: cuid a dó (Dublin, 1926), 157-9, to the eighteenth-century Munster poet Pádraig (mac Ghearóid) Ó hIarfhlaithe and dated by him to 1744. For a discussion of the song and its possible influence on Art Mac Cumhaigh's 'Úirchill an Chreagáin' see Diarmuid Ó Muirithe, Cois an Ghaorthaidh: filíocht ó Mhúscraí 1700-1840 (Dublin, 1987), 48-50. All eight verses of the song are included in this book. For the musical structure of the melody see George Petrie's The Petrie collection of the ancient music of Ireland (Dublin, 1882; new ed. David Cooper, Cork, 2002), 252-4. Petrie published one verse of the song alongside a musical transcription he got from P.W. Joyce (1827-1914), who had collected the song from the singing of Alice Kenny of Glenroe, county Limerick, in 1853. Joyce also published the melody in his Ancient Irish music (Dublin, 1873), 42, where he describes it as 'one of those Jacobite allegorical compositions that were so common in Ireland [in the early eighteenth century]'. The song was also collected from the traditional singer Elizabeth Cronin (1879-1956) of Baile Bhuirne, who was a descendant of the poet Pádraig (mac Ghearóid) Ó hIarfhlaithe. See Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, The songs of Elizabeth Cronin, Irish traditional singer (Dublin and Portland, 2000) for her version of it. Other printed versions may be examined in Pádraig Breathnach's Ceól ár sínsear (Dublin, 1923) and Fuínn na smól (Dublin, 1913) as well as in An Gaodhal (February 1903).

There is another song entitled 'Ceo Draíochta' which was composed by Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin, for which see Pádraig Ua Duinnín, Amhráin Eoghain Ruaidh Uí Shúilleabháin (Dublin, 1901), 23, and Irisleabhar na Gaedhilge 14 (June 1904), 570-1. Ó Muirithe, in Cois an Ghaorthaidh, argues that Pádraig Ó hIarfhlaithe's poem predates Eoghan Rua's poem.