Síle Ní Ghaora

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  • Teideal (Title): Síle Ní Ghaora.
  • Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): 850112.
  • 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): James Cowdery.
  • Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): between 1979 and 1981.
  • Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 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.

Síle Ní Ghaora, téanam ag ól
A Shíle Ní Ghaora, téanam ag ól
D’ólfainnse scilling is mo chuma cé bhfaighinn é
Is rachainn ar bord loinge le Síle Ní Ghaora.

Sheila Geary, come have a drink
Sheila Geary, come have a drink
I’d drink a shilling and I don’t care where I’d get it
And I’d go on shipboard with Sheila Geary.

Notes

This song appears in An tAth. P. Breathnach, Ceol Ár Sínsear (Dublin, 1923), one of three small volumes – the other two being Ár gCeol Féinig (1920), and the English-language collection, Songs of the Gael (1922) – which provided many of the Irish songs taught in schools during the early years of the Republic. Second-hand copies of these volumes were still plentiful in the 1970s, and many Irish homes would have possessed battered copies of some or all of them. Joe appears to have recalled only the chorus of this song.