Cailleach an Airgid

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  • Teideal (Title): Cailleach an Airgid.
  • Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): 853906.
  • Uimhir Chnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann (National Folklore of Ireland Number): none.
  • Uimhir Roud (Roud Number): none.
  • Uimhir Laws (Laws Number): none.
  • Uimhir Child (Child Number): none.
  • Cnuasach (Collection): Joe Heaney Collection, University of Washington, Seattle.
  • Teanga na Croímhíre (Core-Item Language): Irish.
  • Catagóir (Category): song.
  • Ainm an té a thug (Name of Informant): Joe Heaney.
  • Ainm an té a thóg (Name of Collector): Lucy Simpson.
  • Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): 18/10/1979.
  • Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America.
  • Ocáid an taifeadta (Recording Occasion): private.
  • Daoine eile a bhí i láthair (Others present): unavailable.
  • Stádas chóipcheart an taifeadta (Recording copyright status): unavailable.

…And she was reputed to be so strong, that even at that time – that’s when the first boats came out with the… steamboats – they reckoned that if she went into a rowing-boat and started rowing against the steamboat she’d have beaten the steamboat, she was that strong.

(lilting)

Sí do mhaimeó í, sí do mhaimeó í,
Sí do mhaimeó í, cailleach an airgid
Sí do mhaimeó í, bean airgid is óir í1
Is ghabhfadh sí i gcóistí ar bhóithrí Chois Fharraige2.

‘S an measann tú an bpósfaidh? Measann tú an bpósfaidh?
Measann tú an bpósfaidh cailleach an airgid?
Tá a fhios a’m nach bpósfaidh, tá sé ró-óg di
Tá sé ina réic agus d’ólfadh sé an t-airgead.

(lilting)

Agus sí do mhaimeó í, sí do mhaimeó í,
Sí do mhaimeó í, cailleach an airgid
Sí do mhaimeó í, bean airgid is óir í
Is ghabhfadh sí i gcóistí ar bhóithrí Chois Fharraige.

‘S dhá bhfeicfeá-sa an steam ‘gabhail siar Toin Uí Fhloinn
‘S na rothaí ‘gabhail timpeall aniar faoina ceathrúnaí
Dhá gcorrófá an stiúir naoi n-uaire ar a tóin
Ní choinneodh sí siúl le cailleach an airgid.

(lilting)

‘S an measann tú an bpósfaidh? Measann tú an bpósfaidh?
Measann tú an bpósfaidh cailleach an airgid?
Tá a fhios a’m nach bpósfaidh, tá sé ró-óg di
Tá sé ina réic agus d’ólfadh sé an t-airgead3.

(lilting)

Translation

She’s your grandmother, she’s your grandmother,
She’s your grandmother, the hag with the money;
She’s your grandmother, the woman with silver and gold,
And she’d ride in coaches on the roads of Cois Fharraige.

Do you think she will marry? Do you think she will marry?
Do you think she will marry, the hag with the money?
I know she won’t, he’s too young for her,
He’s a rake and he’d drink the money.

If you saw the steamboat heading west past Flynn’s Point,
The wheels going around her hindquarters,
You could turn the steering wheel nine times at her stern
And she wouldn’t keep up with the hag with money.

Do you think she will marry? Do you think she will marry?
Do you think she will marry, the hag with the money?
I know she won’t, he’s too young for her,
He’s a rake and he’d drink the money.

 

Notes

1. On other occasions, Joe sings slightly different words in this line: ‘Sí do mhaimeó í, ó thóin Iorruis Mhóir í… ‘from the back of Errismore’

2. Cois Fharraige — literally ‘sea-side’ — is that reasonably straight part of the coastline that stretches from just west of An Spidéal, further west to the Ros a’ Mhíl district.

3. Most of Joe’s performances also contain the following stanza:

Is goirid go bpósfaidh, is goirid go bpósfaidh
Is goirid go bpósfaidh beirt ar an mbaile seo
Is goirid go bpósfaidh, is goirid go bpósfaidh
‘S iad Tom Mhicil Mhóir agus Máire Ní Chathasaigh.

They’re shortly to marry, they’re shortly to marry,
They’re shortly to marry a pair in this village,
They’re shortly to marry, they’re shortly to marry,
They’re Big Micheal’s son Tom and Mary O’Casey.

Joe explains to Lucy — in fact he swears emphatically — that the ‘hag with the money’ was his great-grandmother, his mother’s grandmother, a woman named Máire Ní Cháthasaigh from Muigh-Inis, an island near Carna. He says he learned it from his father, and that the song was known by everybody in the village. Indeed, this is still the case — and by a great many more besides, thanks largely to the popularity of Joe’s recordings of it.

This is a wonderful recording, because despite the lack of a large audience Joe gets up a good head of steam (no pun intended) and sings with great energy and conviction. At the same time, the domestic setting — cups of tea with Lucy in Joe’s kitchen — approximates the sort of environment that would have been natural for these songs when Joe was growing up.

Among other recordings of this song, those recorded by the late Dara Bán Mac Donnchadha are of particular interest, as Dara Bán was a son of Seán Choilm Mac Donnchadha, whose house still stands next door to Joe’s family home in Áird Thoir, and from whom Joe learned a number of songs when he was growing up. Dara Bán sings a total of six stanzas, seven counting the refrain; three of these have nothing whatever to do with the proposed marriage, but deal rather with fishing and the treatment of fishing-nets. See Rogha Amhrán (Cló Iar-Chonnachta 1999).

In contrast to this recording, no commercially-recorded performances, including Joe’s, appear to involve lilting.