Transcript

Aige[1] bruach Dún Réimhe ar uaigneas lae,
Ó, ba shnuamhar géaga bláthgeal,
Sé chuala mé géimneach cuantaí Éireanna,
Is fuaim sna spéarthaí in airde.

Dá rá gur buartha[2] a bhí mo scéal,
Mo chroí faoi (léiche) (...),
Plúr na n-éan ag fógradh an scéil,
Ó, le cumhaidh gur éag na cágaí.

Is gur fuadadh[3] Féilim uasal tréitheach,
Suas go Laighean do bhás a fháil,
Is Eoghan Rua, mo léan, a fuaigh uainn i gcré,
Sé a ruaigfeadh an ceithirneach Gallta.

Nuair a chualaidh an t-éan mé a lua ar Shíol Néill,
Ó, le gruaim gur éirigh in airde,
Agus scar sé a sciathánaibh síos go féar
Agus buail[4] sé a thaobh go cráite.

Dá rá gur buartha a bhí mo scéal,
Mo chroí faoi (léiche) (...),
Dá gcuartóchainn féin fán (tuamba) féin,
Go bhfaighinn in ualach chré is cnámh iad.

Translation

At Dunreavy riverbank at daybreak,
Oh, how lovely were the bright-flowered branches,
I heard there the roaring of Ireland's bays,
And clamour in the skies above.

To say that my story was sorrowful,
My heart full of woe(?) (...),
The king of the birds proclaiming the story,
Oh, the jackdaws have died of longing.

And noble accomplished Phelim was abducted,
To Leinster where he was to die,
And Owen Roe, alas, who has gone to the grave,
He is the one who would put the foreign soldiers to flight.

When the bird heard me speak of the descendents of O'Neill,
Oh, he flew up with sorrow,
And he spread out his wings down to the grass
And beat his side wretchedly.

To say that my story was sorrowful,
My heart full of woe(?) (...),
If only I searched about the tomb(?),
Until I found them in a pile of earth and bones.

Footnotes

Commentary

This song was composed by the Armagh poet Art Mac Cumhaigh (1738-1773). It is also known as 'Mairgneach faoi Chaisleán na Glasdromainne' ('Lament for Glasdrumman Castle'). Glasdrumman Castle, near Creggan, county Armagh, was the main castle on the southernmost border of the land ruled by the O'Neills of the Fews (Co. Armagh). Mac Cumhaigh lamented and eulogised the O'Neills in much of his poetry. He dreamt of their restoration to power and of the restoration of their patronage to poets, which had ended in the seventeenth century. According to Padraigín Ní Uallacháin (A hidden Ulster: people, songs and traditions of Oriel (Dublin, 2003), 262), while Mac Cumhaigh was taking shelter in the ruins of Glasdrumman Castle 'a song thrush rose near him, symbolising the waning spirit of the O'Neills, and the song is written as an address to the bird.' Lorcán Ó Muireadhaigh, who regarded it as Mac Cumhaigh's most melodious song, published a version he collected from Máire Ní Arbhasaigh in An tUltach 2:4 (1925), 4, and in his Amhráin Chúige Uladh (Dundalk, 1927), no. 9. For more information see: Liam Ó Conchubhair and Derek Bell, Traditional songs of the north of Ireland (Dublin, 1999), 15-6; Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, A hidden Ulster: people, songs and traditions of Oriel (Dublin, 2003), 259-64; Énrí Ó Muirgheasa, Amhráin Airt Mhic Chubhthaigh 1 (Dundalk, 1926), 28; Tomás Ó Fiaich, Art Mac Cumhaigh: dánta (Dublin, 1973), 79; and Pádraig Ó Canainn, Filíocht na nGael (Dublin, 1958), 36.

This song is transcribed also in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 324-7.