Transcript

Bhí mé i mo shuí le taobh le athair na ngrásta aige[1] Pátrún Óméith,
Bhí sagairt, bhí bráithlí[2] is grásta Dé,
Ag crathadh lámha, hataí in airde, aige Pátrún Óméith.

Ó, bheinnse mar ba ghnách liom go haignidh[3] is óg,
Bheirfinn (fuaim) as na clárthaí (leis aird) mo cheoil,
D'ársóinn scéal (daoibh) le onóir is le feidhm,
Sé mur chéad míle fáilte chuige Pátrún Óméith.

Translation

I was sitting beside the father of grace at the Omeath Pattern,
There were priests, brothers and the grace of God,
Shaking hands, hats in the air, at the Omeath Pattern.

Oh, if I were like I once was, spirited and young,
I'd make the floorboards ring with the volume(?) of my music,
I'd tell you a story with honour and purpose,
A hundred thousand welcomes to the Omeath Pattern.

Footnotes

Commentary

A pattern is a patron saint's festival. These were often celebrated at holy wells or at ruins of churches. The saints to whom the patterns were dedicated were mostly Irish and there is great diversity in the customs associated with patterns throughout the country. In addition to the religious aspect, pattern days were great social events in rural life. Lorcán Ua Muireadhaigh considered the present song to be the last piece of native Irish poetry from Oriel and he published a version of it in Ceolta Óméith (Dundalk, 1920), where he writes (p. 7) that it was 'composed by Nelly O Hanlon of Cornamuckla, after the first Omeath Feis, in 1902.' For more information on traditions associated with pattern days, see Kevin Danaher, The year in Ireland: calendar custom in Ireland (Cork, 1972), and Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, 'Revisiting the well', Éire-Ireland, 40:1-2 (spring/summer 2005), 11-41. This item is transcribed also in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 268.