Transcript

Ó, táilliúir aerach mé a thug spéis do ghreann,
Go ndéanfainn súgradh le mo rúin ar faill,
Níl baile cuain ar bith dá ngluaisfinn ann
Nach bhfaighinn maighdean óg dheas ar bhuidéal leann.

Tá an oíche seo dorcha agus beidh go lá,
Chaill mé mo mhuirnín 's níl dul a'm[1] a fáil,
Ó, chuartaigh mé (an t-ísleacht is cúl an aird),
Nach í an neoinín álainn í atá doiligh a fháil.

Translation

Oh, I am a light-hearted tailor with an interest in fun,
I would flirt with my darling when I had the chance,
There isn't a coastal town I would visit
Where I would not get nice young maiden for a bottle of ale.

This night is dark and will be till day,
I have lost my darling and I cannot find her,
Oh, I searched the lowlands and the back of the hill (?),
Isn't she the beautiful daisy who can't be found.

Footnotes

Commentary

'An Táilliúir Aerach' is one of many songs that relate the often mischievous life of tailors in Ireland. According to Dónal O'Sullivan, 'the countryman bought his hand-woven cloth in suit-lengths at the fair and kept it at his home against the arrival of the journeyman-tailor, who made the suit on the spot and lived with his customer until it was finished. Hence he was engaged indoors while the man of the house was at work in the fields, the smithy or elsewhere. In the circumstances, the tailor's opportunities for dalliance must have been considerable' (Dónal O'Sullivan, Songs of the Irish (Dublin, 1960), 40). In this little-known song, the tailor tells of his flighty ways, indulging in drinking and courting women. It is closely related to the last two verses of 'Tiocfaidh an samhradh (part 1)' which can be found elsewhere in the Doegen collection. It is not to be confused with a very well-known song also entitled 'An Táilliúir Aerach' (sometimes known as 'Amhrán an Ghabha'/'The Smith's Song'), which has a very distinctive chorus suggestive of the blacksmith's striking anvil: Ding dong didilium, buail sin, séid seo ... D’imigh mo bhean leis an táilliúir aerach. For examples of this see: Fionán Mac Coluim, Amhráin na nGleann: cuid a haon (Dublin, 1939), 62-3; Dónal O'Sullivan, The songs of the Irish, 39-40; Mánus Ó Baoill, 'An Táilliúr Aerach', Ceolta Gael 2 (Cork, 1986), 91-2; and David Cooper (ed.), The Petrie collection of the ancient music of Ireland (Cork, 2002), 195-200. A further song entitled 'An Tailliúir Aerach', said to have been composed by Conchubhar Máistir Ó Ríoghbhardáin, Clondrohid, county Cork (c.1770-1840), was published in The Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society 21 (1924), 9-11. Finally, the song 'Bean an Fhir Rua' ('The red-haired man's wife') is yet another example of a song which tells of the story of a tailor longing after the wife of another man.