Transcript

Ó, is nuair a d'éirigh mé ar maidin ar Ard-Inis Bhearna
Chonaic mé an phláinéad faoi dhuifean go mór,
Ba hairde a cuid deataigh ná ceo Bhéal an Mháma
Is gur chriothnaigh sí tránntaí chondae Mhaigh Eo,
Ó ach níor fhéad mise samhail ar bith a chur léithi
Ach ifreann dá séideadh le neart a cuid guail,
Ó d'fhágaí Ceann Acla gur ghlan Inis Téagail
Go bhfaca mé céadtaí ag tíocht ar an gcuan.

Ó, bhí ceathar chun tosaigh agus iad ina léinteachaí
Is beirt eilí ag féachaint ar aireachas cruaidh,
Ag soundáil an talaimh is dá thomhas 'na péirsí,
Nach lag a frítheadh Éire is í a ligean dhon chuan,
Órú, d'ionsaigh sí tharam goil faoi na sléibhtí
Is in aice Mhám Éan sea fuair[1] sí 'un suain,
'S anoir léi ar maidin 'gus í sa racht chéanna
Gur ghlan sí Ceann Léime is Béal ' Chaladh(?) atá thuaidh.

Arú, caithfidh mé foirinn a sholáthar amáireach,
Sin agus bád le aghaidh rigeáil 'un seoil,
Go dté mé dhon fharraige a bhfaighidh mise fáirnis
An bhfuil sí sa Spáinn nó an maireann sí beo,
Chuala mé fear a tháinig thar sáile
Dá rá go rabh sí sa Spáinn gan unsa ar bith brón,
Go mbeadh sí ar maidin lá Nollag i dtír i bPort Láirge
Agus arm dá gardáil ar chondae Mhaigh Eo.

Translation

When I got up in the morning on high Inishbarna
I saw the plane under a great cloud,
Her smoke was higher than the mist of Bellavaum
And she shook the beaches of county Mayo,
I could think of nothing with which to compare her
But hell blowing with the power of her coal,
When she left Achill Head and cleared Inishdeagil
I saw hundreds coming to the harbour.

There were four in front in their shirts
And another two keeping hard watch,
Sounding the land and measuring it in perches,
Didn't Ireland prove weak to let her go from the harbour,
She proceeded past me heading towards the hills
And came to rest near Maumean,
And from the east she came in the morning in the same condition
Till she cleared Slyne Head and Béal ' Chaladh(?) to the north.

I must source a team tomorrow,
And a boat to rig for sailing,
So that I may go to sea and find out
If she is in Spain or if she still lives,
I heard a man who came from overseas
Saying that she was in Spain without an ounce of sorrow,
And that she would be on Christmas Day in port in Waterford
With an army guarding her against county Mayo.

Footnotes

Commentary

This song was composed by Seán Mac Conmara (c.1787 - c.1867) of Inis Bearna, Killary Harbour, county Galway. A short biography of the poet and some of his songs were published in Tomás Ó Máille, Micheál Mhac Suibhne agus filidh an tsléibhe (Dublin, 1934: repr. Dublin, 1969), 43-55, which includes a ten-verse version of 'Neileach'. Ó Máille first published the song in Amhráin chlainne Gaedheal (Dublin, 1905. See William Mahon's edition: Amhráin chlainne Gael (Indreabhán, 1991), 139-41. Ó Máille writes that he collected the song from the singing of his father, who knew the poet Seán Mac Conmara, and also from one Tomás Breathnach. According to Ó Máille, the song was inspired by an English warship that had entered Killary Harbour and may have been the first steamboat the poet had encountered. The poet imagined similarities between the image on the front of the warship and a beautiful woman named Neileach from Murrisk, county Mayo. A reference to a meeting Daniel O'Connell held in 1843 in Cloghancalticaunien, county Galway, is made in longer versions of the song. The poet makes it clear that he would rather revolutionary action than O'Connell's words to rid Ireland of such warships. There is no melody given for the song in Ó Máille's publications, thus the present recording is all the more valuable.