Transcript

Ó, is a chuach na finne cé rachaidh tú le do nead,
Síos go hIorras go dteagaí[1] an t-éan amach,
Síos go hIorras ní rachaidh mé le mo nead,
Ní dhearna mé an tsiocair is ní thiocfadh an t-éan amach.

Ó, agus thíos in Iorras tá roinnt dho mo chomhairle féin,
Mar is ann atá an ainnir a d'fhága le bolaíocht mé,
Bhreoigh sí, mharaigh sí is d'athraigh sí m'intinn féin,
Is nach iad na mná a mharaigh mé, (is) fada gur amhdaíos é.

Ó, agus gabhfad go Gaillimh agus ceannóidh mé tuirne lín,
Tiocfaidh mé abhailí agus tarraingeoidh mé snáithe caol,
Muise, craithfidh mé an rois agus tiocfaidh sí rua ar an líon,
Is brón ar an ainnir, sí a rinne cíor thuaifil daom.

Ó, agus gabhfad go Gaillimh agus ceannóidh mé ciall,
Dheamhan a dtiocfaidh mé abhailí go gcaithe mé lá fada is bliain,
Dheamhan sin teach leanna dhá suífidh mé ('na) n-ólfaidh mé bia
Nach n-ólfaidh mé sláinte mo Chaitlín Triall.

Muise, shíl mise, a chuisle, agus shíl mé, a stór,
Nach n-iarrfá mo mharlait[2] achoíche ná go deo
Go bhfaca mé thusa agus bean eilí ag ól
Ar chúlaí an tom aitinn is mug leanna in do láimh.

Translation

Fair cuckoo, where will you go with your nest,
Down to Erris until the bird comes out,
Down to Erris I will not go with my nest,
I didn't effect it (?) and the bird would not come out.

Down in Erris is some of my own counsel (?),
Because the maiden who left me nosing about is there,
She sickened, she injured and she changed my mind,
And isn't it the women who have killed me, it took a long time until I admitted it.

I will go to Galway and I will buy a flax-wheel,
I will come home and I will draw a fine thread,
I will shake the (...) and the flax will be red,
I grieve over the beauty, it is she who has bewildered me.

I will go to Galway and I will buy sense,
I won't come home until I spend a long day and a year,
There won't be a drinking house where I will sit and eat(?) food
But I will drink to the health of my Catherine Tyrell

I thought, my dear, and I thought, my darling,
That you would not seek another ever or again
Till I saw you and another woman drinking
Behind the whin-bush with a mug of beer in your hand.

Footnotes

Commentary

These verses are from the song 'Cuach na Finne', an eight-verse version of which was collected from Seán Ó Bheáidh of Tonatanvally, Achill, county Mayo, and published in Micheál Ó Tiománaidhe, Abhráin Ghaeidhilge an Iarthair (Dublin, 1906). See new edition by William Mahon: Amhráin Ghaeilge an Iarthair: Micheál Ó Tiománaidhe a chruinnigh (Indreabhán, 1992), 32-3. It is a song about a young man whose father sends him on a journey to seek a woman for himself. Not long after the young man sets off on his quest, he suffers the misfortune of falling from his donkey and breaking two thirds of his bones in the process. He is unsuccessful and encounters many further difficulties in his pursuits and eventually finds himself in danger of losing his mind. Sally Ruddy begins the song here with the fourth verse of Ó Tiománaidhe's version. The second and third verses that Ruddy sings also correlate with verses as published in Abhráin Ghaeidhilge an Iarthair. The mention of 'Caitlín Triall' in the fourth verse is a reference to Catherine Tyrell of Tyrellspass, county Westmeath, who evidently inspired a number of love songs, an example of which is included in the Doegen collection under the title 'Sé mo léan go bhfacha mé'.