Play recording: Connla (2)
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- Teideal (Title): Connla (2).
- Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): none.
- Uimhir Chnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann (National Folklore of Ireland Number): none.
- Uimhir Roud (Roud Number): 12771.
- Uimhir Laws (Laws Number): none.
- Uimhir Child (Child Number): none.
- Cnuasach (Collection): The Máire Nic Fhinn Collection.
- Teanga na Croímhíre (Core-Item Language): Irish and English.
- Catagóir (Category): song.
- Ainm an té a thug (Name of Informant): Joe Heaney, Séamas Ennis.
- Ainm an té a thóg (Name of Collector): Liam Clancy.
- Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): unavailable.
- Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): unavailable.
- Ocáid an taifeadta (Recording Occasion): unavailable.
- Daoine eile a bhí i láthair (Others present): unavailable.
- Stádas chóipcheart an taifeadta (Recording copyright status): unavailable
…Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
‘Maybe I shouldn’t’ says Connla.
Cé hé sin thíos atá bualadh na fuinneoige?
Cé hé sin thíos atá bualadh na fuinneoige?
Cé hé sin thíos atá bualadh na fuinneoige?
‘Mise héin’ a dúirt Connla.
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
‘Cóir dom sin’ a dúirt Connla.
Who is that out there that’s tapping my window pane?
Who is that out there that’s tapping my window pane?
Who is that out there that’s tapping my window pane?
Nobody only Connla.
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
‘Maybe I shouldn’t’ says Connla.
Cé hé sin thíos atá coigilt na teine dhom?
Cé hé sin thíos atá coigilt na teine dhom?
Cé hé sin thíos atá coigilt na teine dhom?
‘Mise héin’ a dúirt Connla.
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
‘Cóir dom sin’ a dúirt Connla.
Who’s that there raking the fire for me?
Who’s that there raking the fire for me?
Who’s that there raking the fire for me?
Nobody only Connla.
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
‘Maybe I shouldn’t’ says Connla.
Cé hé sin thíos atá tarraingt na pluide dhíom?
Cé hé sin thíos atá tarraingt na pluide dhíom?
Cé hé sin thíos atá tarraingt na pluide dhíom?
‘Mise héin’ a dúirt Connla.
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
‘M’anam go dtiocfaidh!’ a dúirt Connla1.
Who is that there that’s dragging the blankets off?
Who is that there that’s dragging the blankets off?
Who is that there that’s dragging the blankets off?
Nobody only Connla.
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
‘Maybe I shouldn’t’ says Connla.
Cé hé sin thíos atá tochas mo bhonnachaí?
Cé hé sin thíos atá tochas mo bhonnachaí?
Cé hé sin thíos atá tochas mo bhonnachaí?
‘Mise héin’ a dúirt Connla.
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
A Chonnla, a chroí, ná tearaigh níos goire dhom!
‘Cóir dom sin’ a dúirt Connla.
Who is that there that tickles the toes of me?
Who is that there that tickles the toes of me?
Who is that there that tickles the toes of me?
Nobody only Connla.
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
Connla, dear, don’t come any nearer me!
‘Maybe I shouldn’t’ says Connla.
Notes
1. Joe makes a slight alteration to the chorus here to reflect the advancement of the plot: M’anam go dtiocfaidh! (upon my soul, I will!).
Although it’s a pity the tape was not set going until after the song had begun, the sheer joy taken in the performance by Joe and his old sparring-partner, the famous piper and folk song collector Séamas Ennis, comes through strongly as does that of their audience. Joe and Séamas usually made things lively when they got together, and this occasion was no exception.
In an interview with Joe’s biographer, Liam Mac Con Iomaire, Liam Clancy described what might have been the circumstances of this recording. A few days before Joe was to depart for England, someone suggested a spur-of-the-moment trip to Baile an Fheirtéirigh in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht of County Kerry. We went off to Ballyferriter, Joe Heaney, Séamas Ennis, my wife Kim, Barney Mc Kenny and, I think, Ciarán Bourke. I have recordings from these nights and I have some wonderful stuff with Joe.
On the way back to Dublin, the lads had a bottle of whiskey in the back, and I had the tape recorder going as they tried to outdo one another. And Séamas Ennis would get under Joe’s skin by singing a verse of some obscure Colm Keane [Colm Ó Caodháin] song, a verse he’d think Joe wouldn’t know. And Joe would say, “Jesus Christ Almighty, you stole that from my uncle Colm Keane!”
(Liam Mac Con Iomaire, Seosamh Ó hÉanaí: Nár fhágha mé bás choíche, Cló Iar-Chonnachta (2007), 219.)
Certainly there was always a sense of rivalry between Joe and Ennis, who were born in the same year. Joe sometimes complained to students in the U.S. that Ennis had profited financially from his collecting work for the Irish Folklore Commission in the 1940s, principally by learning the songs he got from informants and performing them himself on the radio, for a fee. It seems probable that the number of tracks featuring Séamas Ennis’s singing on the seminally-important 1955 LP issued from Alan Lomax’s recordings for Columbia Records, the Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Ireland, did not go unnoticed by Joe Heaney, who would himself surely have appeared on that recording if he had not been living in Scotland at the time of Lomax’s field-trip. But while it may be fair to describe Ennis as a self-promoter, very few others at that time were troubling themselves to promote him or the music in which he passionately believed. The story was no different for Joe Heaney.
We are greatful to the late Liam Clancy for permission to use this recording