How Songs And Stories Come Into Existence

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  • Teideal (Title): How Songs And Stories Come Into Existence.
  • Uimhir Chatalóige Ollscoil Washington (University of Washington Catalogue Number): 903901.
  • 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 and English.
  • Catagóir (Category): lore; song.
  • Ainm an té a thug (Name of Informant): Joe Heaney.
  • Ainm an té a thóg (Name of Collector): Kenneth Goldstein.
  • Dáta an taifeadta (Recording Date): unavailable.
  • Suíomh an taifeadta (Recording Location): Department of Folklore and Folklife, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America.
  • Ocáid an taifeadta (Recording Occasion): day class.
  • Daoine eile a bhí i láthair (Others present): unavailable.
  • Stádas chóipcheart an taifeadta (Recording copyright status): unavailable.

Kenneth Goldstein asks Joe to tell the class how the song Didtherumdo and other songs were composed. Joe begins by telling a couple of stories connected with the Conamara poet Micheál Mac Suibhne [Sweeney].

First, he discusses Fáilte Uí Cheallaigh1 [Kelly’s Welcome]:

Fáilte na múrthaíl sa samhradh nuair a bhíonns an t-uisce gann. (You’re welcome as the showers in summer when water is scarce.)
Fáilte chatharnach mhatharnach chiúin dheas chóir. (Nice, smooth, even, straight welcome, if you’ll have it.)
Fáilte na máthar roimh an leanbh atá i mbroinn go fóill. (The welcome of a mother for a baby who’s still in her womb.)
Fáilte ‘s fiche is cuirim na céadta leo. (You’re welcome and twenty, and I add another hundred.)
A’s fáilte gan filleadh más miste leat-sa bheith ‘ measc na sléibhte. (And a welcome that you’d don’t come back ever if you don’t like to be among these pretty hills here.)

Then Joe tells how Sweeney was on the way to Galway, and on the road from Moycullen he met the parish priest, who began criticising Sweeney for composing bawdy songs. Sweeney tells the priest that he does no such thing, but it’s the people he meets that put the words into the songs. As proof, he makes a bet with the priest – although he has no money himself, he knows that the priest has money – that the priest will compose a verse of a song before they reach Galway. At this point, Joe cuts the story short, but reveals that Sweeney won the bet.

Lastly, Joe tells the story behind Didtherumdo and sings it for the class.

Notes

1. Joe apparently recited the story of Fáilte Uí Cheallaigh when he competed at the Oireachtas in 1942, where the Irish Folklore Commission’s collector Séamas Ennis transcribed it on that occasion (CBÉ ms. 1280:71):

Fáilte Uí Chealla’ (Seanchas ar an Suibhneach.)

Beirt fhear a bhí ‘sa gClochán agus bhí strainséara mór ná ra’ riamh i n-áit fhiadháin dhe leithéide Chonamara, bhí sé le thigheacht ‘na tighe ag duine dhen bheirt. Bhí geáll curtha ag a’ strainséara le duine acu nach bhfuigheadh sé aon fhear i gConamara a chuirfeadh fáilte mhór roimhe — fáilte a thaithneochadh leis mar adéar thú. Chuir fear a’ tigh fios ar a’ Suíbhneach — Micheál Mac Suibhne – agus d’innis sé ‘n scéal dó. D’fhan an Suibhneach i gcumaraidheacht (i gcotharaidheacht) (likeness) cheann dhe na fir agus nuair tháinic a stróinséar isteach thosa’ sé mar seo:

Fáilte na múrthaigheal sa samhradh rót nuair a bhíos a’ t-uisce gánn
Fáilte chatharnach mhatharnach[?] chiúin dheas chóir
Fáilte na máthar roim an leanabh atá i mbroinn go fóill
Fáilte ‘s fiche is cuirim na céadta leob
‘S fáilte gan filleadh muna miste leat-sa bheith ‘ measc na sléibhte fuar.

Siné an Fháilte Uí Chealla’ anois. Níor chuala mé ariamh ach ag m’athair é[?].

Seósamh Ó h-Éighnigh. (Cárna) Oireachtas 1942.

For another telling of this story in Irish, with a bit more detail about the background to the contest, see Hartmann, Hans, Tomás de Bhaldraithe and Ruairí Ó hUiginn (eds.), Airneán: Ein Sammlung von Texten aus Carna, Co. na Gaillimhe, Max Niemeyer Verlag Tübingen (1996), vol 1, lines 5607-5639.