Transcript

Bhí maidin fhómhair is mé (th)riall go Feochaill
Cé a tharlaigh sa ród orm ach stór mo chroí,
Ba deirge a gruaidh ná na caoraí caorthainn
Is gur bhinne a béal ná na ceoltaí sí.

Ara, leag mé mo lámh ar a brollach ró-dheas
Agus d'iarrais[1] póg uirthi, stór mo chroí,
Sé a dúirt sí, "Stop agus ná stróic mo chlóca,
Tá fios do intinn aige[2] bean an toighe."

Translation

One autumn morning as I was going towards Foughill(?)
Who should I meet on the road but the love of my heart,
Her cheek was redder than rowan berries
And her voice sweeter than fairy music.

I lay my hand on her lovely breast
And sought a kiss from her, my true love,
She said, "Stop and don't tear my cloak,
The lady of the house knows your mind."

Footnotes

Commentary

These are the opening verses of a song known under a variety of names and numerous versions of it are to be found throughout Ireland. It is particularly popular in Ulster and in Munster. In Ulster versions of the song, local placenames such as Feochaill/Foughill (county Armagh), Leamhchoill/Longfield (county Monaghan) and Dromainn Tí/Drumintee (county Armagh) are mentioned. Reference is also made in some Ulster versions to the chief family of Gaelic Ulster, the O'Neills. In Munster versions of the song the placenames Eochaill and Ceapach Choinn refer to Youghal, county Cork, and Cappoquin, county Waterford, and no reference is made to the O'Neills. The song may be regarded as a pastourelle. See Seán Ó Tuama, An grá in amhráin na ndaoine (Dublin, 1960), 23; idem, Repossessions (Cork, 1995), 146. Other Tyrone versions may be examined in Gerard Stockman and Heinrich Wagner, 'Contributions to a study of Tyrone Irish,' Lochlann 3 (1965), 43-235: 226-29. For a (longer) southeast-Ulster version of the song and for a detailed bibliography see Pádraigín Ní Uallacháin, A hidden Ulster: people, songs and traditions of Oriel (Dublin, 2003), 207-10, 516-7. For information on the melodies associated with the song see Dónal O'Sullivan, 'The Bunting collection of Irish folk music and songs 1', Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society 22 (1927), 105. Brigid McEvoy, county Sligo, recites a longer version of the song elsewhere in the Doegen collection. Nioclás Tóibín, sean-nós singer from An Rinn (Ring), county Waterford, sings a Munster version of it on Rinn na nGael (Cló Iar-Chonnacht, 1999).

This item is transcribed also in Róise Ní Bhaoill, Ulster Gaelic voices: bailiúchán Doegen 1931 (Belfast, 2010), 232.