{"id":1138,"date":"2016-01-17T08:01:59","date_gmt":"2016-01-17T08:01:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/?p=1138"},"modified":"2016-01-17T08:01:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-17T08:01:59","slug":"cearbhall-o-dalaigh-eileanoir-a-run-and-how-cearbhall-got-the-gift-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-eileanoir-a-run-and-how-cearbhall-got-the-gift-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh: Eilean\u00f3ir a R\u00fan and how Cearbhall got the Gift (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"t:seinnteoirin1\">Play recording: Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh: Eilean\u00f3ir a R\u00fan and how Cearbhall got the Gift (1)<\/h2>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1138-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-eileanoir-a-run-and-how-cearbhall-got-the-gift-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><source type=\"audio\/ogg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-eileanoir-a-run-and-how-cearbhall-got-the-gift-1.ogg?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-eileanoir-a-run-and-how-cearbhall-got-the-gift-1.mp3\">https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-eileanoir-a-run-and-how-cearbhall-got-the-gift-1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<div class=\"dmeite\">\n<p><span id=\"neasc-nocht-ceilth\" class=\"nmeite\">view \/ hide recording details [+\/-]<\/span><\/p>\n<ul id=\"clarMeiteashonrai\" class=\"meiteashonrai\">\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teideal <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Title)<\/span>:<\/span> Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh: Eilean\u00f3ir a R\u00fan and how Cearbhall got the Gift (1).<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chatal\u00f3ige Ollscoil Washington <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(University of Washington Catalogue Number)<\/span>:<\/span> 781512.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Chnuasach Bh\u00e9aloideas \u00c9ireann <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(National Folklore of Ireland Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Roud <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Roud Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Laws <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Laws Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Uimhir Child <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Child Number)<\/span>:<\/span> none.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Cnuasach <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Collection)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney Collection, University of Washington, Seattle.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Teanga na Cro\u00edmh\u00edre <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Core-Item Language)<\/span>:<\/span> Irish.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Catag\u00f3ir <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Category)<\/span>:<\/span> song.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a thug <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Informant)<\/span>:<\/span> Joe Heaney.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Ainm an t\u00e9 a th\u00f3g <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Name of Collector)<\/span>:<\/span> Esther Warkov.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">D\u00e1ta an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Date)<\/span>:<\/span> 01\/03\/1978.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Su\u00edomh an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Location)<\/span>:<\/span> University of Washington, United States of America.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Oc\u00e1id an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Occasion)<\/span>:<\/span> interview.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Daoine eile a bh\u00ed i l\u00e1thair <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Others present)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">St\u00e1das ch\u00f3ipcheart an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording copyright status)<\/span>:<\/span> unavailable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Now the song is called Eilean\u00f3ir a R\u00fan. The way that Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh&hellip; composed this, and put music to it himself. And the story attributed to Carolan<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1<\/sup>. I hope you don&#8217;t mind listening to this story. This is one of the finest stories ever behind a Gaelic song.<\/p>\n<p>When Carolan was a young man, his job was to do odd jobs for anybody who&#8217;d give him work, and he was travelling around the country doing such things until he was about twenty years of age. And one day, he came to this farmer&#8217;s house, and the farmer told him he&#8217;d give him a job to watch four cows. The rest of the cattle was watched by somebody else. &#8216;And keep your eye,&#8217; he said, &#8216;on the white cow, because there&#8217;s a legend about the white cow, that she&#8217;ll give birth to a calf, and who will ever taste the milk of the mother first will have the gift of all knowledge, master of all trades, and any woman who will ever look at him will fall twice in love with him at the one time.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>So anyway, Carolan took the cattle out grazing, and nothing happened for a couple of months. And this day, he was grazing the cattle beside a huge big rock &mdash; like that wall there. And the rock opened up. And out of the rock walked the most beautiful, the most ferocious bull that a man ever laid eyes on. And the bull didn&#8217;t look right or left &mdash; he walked up to the white cow. Now, whatever they said to one another, the bull and the white cow took off to one corner of the field, and they stayed there all day until the sun was setting. And, you know the myth about something out of the other world, like the banshee &mdash; they have to go back before the sun sets, and stay there &#8217;til twelve o&#8217;clock at night. Well, anyway, they came back, and the rock opened; the bull gave the cow a little kick with his hind leg, and back he goes into the rock again.<\/p>\n<p>Then Carolan came home and he told the master what happened; and he said &#8216;Keep an eye on the white cow until she has a calf; and whatever you do, don&#8217;t let the calf suck its mother, because whoever tastes the first of that milk is okay for the rest of his life.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>So the day the cow gave birth to the calf, Carolan forgot what the master told him. And he saw the calf about to suck his mother, and went over and he took the milk off the mouth of the calf, and he rubbed his fingers across his mouth, like that. And then he was told: &#8216;Carolan, you tasted the milk of the white cow and the black bull first. Now, you&#8217;re a gifted man. The first thing you do, don&#8217;t go home to the farmer and tell him this, because he&#8217;ll kill you.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>So he sets off, and he was travelling for three or four months, until one night he came to this shoemaker&#8217;s house. And the shoemaker was making a pair of shoes. And Carolan came in and he bid him good evening and he told him to sit down, he&#8217;d get him something to eat; but at the moment he was busy trying to finish a pair of shoes for the lady in the big house. The lady in the big house was Eleanor Kavanagh &mdash; that was her surname. &#8216;And I must finish the shoes tonight&#8217;, he says, &#8216;because she&#8217;s going to a dance.&#8217; So Carolan says, &#8216;Could I&#8217;, he says, &#8216;do one of the shoes for you?&#8217; And he said, &#8216;No, these&hellip; have to be perfect. I have to make them myself&#8217;. But the poor shoemaker was so tired that he fell asleep; and Carolan took over, and he finished the pair of shoes that was yet untouched. And when the shoemaker woke up, he saw the shoe, and he said &#8216;Well,&#8217; he said, &#8216;I hope the shoe that you made,&#8217; he said, &#8216;fits her like the one I made.&#8217; And he said, &#8216;Will you bring them up now,&#8217; he says to Carolan, &#8216;bring them up to&hellip; Eleanor, because she&#8217;s waiting.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>So when Carolan went up to the door, he saw Eleanor, standing inside the door. And he said in the song &mdash; the first thing he said in the song was &#8216;mo ghr\u00e1 den ch\u00e9ad fh\u00e9achaint th\u00fa, Eilean\u00f3ir a r\u00fan&#8217; &mdash; &#8216;my love to you at first sight.&#8217; He brought the shoes in; she tried them on; one shoe fitted her, and the other didn&#8217;t. And she said, &#8216;Whoever made this shoe, I&#8217;ll follow him for the rest&hellip; of my life&#8217;. And that&#8217;s when she eloped with Carolan.<\/p>\n<p>Now, there is no English translation to this, either. Not this way. There is, the other way &mdash; the way it&#8217;s in the book<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">2<\/sup>. And this is the way Carolan did it.<\/p>\n<p>Mo ghr\u00e1 th\u00fa den ch\u00e9ad fh\u00e9achaint, is t\u00fa Eilean\u00f3ir a r\u00fan<br \/>\nIs ort a bh\u00edm ag smaoineamh tr\u00e1th a mb\u00edm im shuain.<br \/>\nA ghr\u00e1 den tsaol is a ch\u00e9ad-searc<br \/>\nIs t\u00fa is deise n\u00e1 ban \u00c9ireann<br \/>\nA bhruinnil\u00edn deas \u00f3ig, is t\u00fa is deise milse p\u00f3ig<br \/>\nCh\u00fans mhairfead beo beidh gean a&#8217;m ort<br \/>\nMar is deas mar a sheolfainn gamhna\u00ed leat, a Eilean\u00f3ir a r\u00fan.<\/p>\n<p>Now, Carolan starts praising her. &#8216;She has a gift&#8217;, he says, &#8216;she could get the birds off the limbs of the trees; she had a gift she could even make the corpse move while laid out on the board<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">3<\/sup> and she has another gift I&#8217;ll never tell anybody until such a time as we get married.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;S bh\u00ed bua aici go meallfadh s\u00ed na h\u00e9anlaith \u00f3n gcrann<br \/>\n&#8216;S ba mh\u00edlse blas a p\u00f3ig\u00edn n\u00e1 a chuaich\u00edn roimh an l\u00e1<br \/>\nBh\u00ed bua eile aici nach nd\u00e9arfad<br \/>\nS\u00ed gr\u00e1 mi chro\u00ed &#8216;s mo chead-searc<br \/>\nA bhruinnil\u00edn deas \u00f3ig, is t\u00fa is deise milse p\u00f3ig<br \/>\nCh\u00fans mhairfead beo beidh gean a&#8217;m ort<br \/>\nMar is deas mar a sheolfainn gamhna\u00ed leat, a Eilean\u00f3ir a r\u00fan.<\/p>\n<p>Well, Carolan always said, &#8216;Is deas mar a sheolfainn gamhna\u00ed leat&#8217; &mdash; &#8216;I would love to drive the cattle with you&#8217;. Because he was thinking of the white cow that made him the man he was. So he&#8217;s always talking about driving the cattle with Eleanor.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"t:aistriuchan\">Translation<\/h2>\n<p>You&#8217;re my love at first-sight, Eleanor my secret<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">4<\/sup>.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s of you that I am thinking while I lie asleep<br \/>\nMy love and my first treasure<br \/>\nYou are the best of the women of Ireland<br \/>\nLovely young maiden, you have the nicest, sweetest kiss<br \/>\nAs long as I live I will desire you<br \/>\nFor I would love to drive the calves with you, Eleanor my secret.<\/p>\n<p>She had the gift that she could entice the birds from the trees<br \/>\nAnd the taste of her kiss was sweeter than the cuckoo before day<br \/>\nShe had another gift that I will not tell<br \/>\nShe is the love of my heart and my first treasure<br \/>\nLovely young maiden, you have the nicest, sweetest kiss<br \/>\nAs long as I live I will desire you<br \/>\nFor I would love to drive the calves with you, Eleanor my secret.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n\u00f3ta\u00ed-bun-leathanaigh\">\n<h2 id=\"t:notai\">Notes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1. Having told his audience that the poet&#8217;s name was Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh, Joe refers to this person as &#8216;Carolan&#8217; for the remainder of the tale. Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh was not the same person as the famous harper Toirdhealbhach \u00d3 Cearbhall\u00e1in, although Conamara folklore appears to have confused the two names. The legends surrounding Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh are well examined in James Doan, &#8216;Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh as Archetypal Poet in Irish Folk Tradition&#8217;, in Proceedings of the Harvard Celtic Colloquium, Vol. 1 (1981), 95-123; see also L. \u00d3 Laoire, S. Williams and V. S. Blankenhorn, &#8216;Seosamh \u00d3 h\u00c9ana\u00ed agus Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh: Cleasa an Chros\u00e1in san Oile\u00e1n \u00dar&#8217; in New Hibernia Review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">2. Here Joe is referring to a song in English, <cite class=\"amhr\u00e1n\">Eileen Aroon<\/cite>, which he says is based upon the same legend. He told Lucy Simpson that he found <cite class=\"amhr\u00e1n\">Eileen Aroon<\/cite> in a book and that while he doesn&#8217;t really think much of the song he learned it so that he would have something in English that would go some way towards satisfying his American audiences&#8217; desire for a translation of <cite class=\"amhr\u00e1n\">Eilean\u00f3r a R\u00fan<\/cite>, which he said he learned at home from his father (UW 853907).<\/p>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">3. As Joe&#8217;s translation indicates, there is an alternative second line to the stanza he is about to sing: <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">Bh\u00ed bua aici go dt\u00f3igfeadh s\u00ed an corp fuar \u00f3n mb\u00e1s<\/i> &mdash; &#8216;She had the gift of being able to raise the cold corpse from death&#8217;. In the event, he sings a line comparing the sweetness of Eleanor&#8217;s kiss to the song of the cuckoo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">4. The Irish word <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">r\u00fan<\/i> literally means &#8216;secret&#8217;. However, it is also used by lovers in the phrase a r\u00fan as a term of endearment. So while the literal meaning is &#8216;Eilean\u00f3ir, you secret&#8217; the actual meaning is nearer to &#8216;Eilean\u00f3ir, my darling&#8217; or similar. The variant <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">a r\u00fanaigh<\/i> also exists. Similar affectionate phrases, most of them not limited to romantic usage, include <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">a st\u00f3r<\/i> (store; implying thing of (emotional) value), <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">a thaisce<\/i> (also means &#8216;store&#8217;; Ulster Irish), <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">a chro\u00ed<\/i> (heart), <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">a chumann<\/i> (does not translate cleanly; romantic union \/ relationship; <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">a bheith i gcumann le duine<\/i>: to be going out with someone) and so on&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>Normally Joe adds a third verse, in which the poet asks Eleanor to elope with him. Presumably he felt the constraint of time on this occasion. The stanza is, however, included in his commercially-available recordings of this song:<\/p>\n<p>An dtiocfaidh t\u00fa n\u00f3 an bhfanfaidh t\u00fa, a Eilean\u00f3ir a r\u00fan?<br \/>\nN\u00f3 an aithneof\u00e1 an t\u00e9 nach gc\u00e1infeadh th\u00fa, a chuid den tsaol &#8216;s a st\u00f3ir?<br \/>\n\u00d3, tiocfaidh m\u00e9 is n\u00ed fhanfaidh m\u00e9<br \/>\nIs maith a d&#8217;aithneoinn an t\u00e9 nach gc\u00e1infeadh m\u00e9<br \/>\nA bhruinnil\u00edn deas \u00f3ig, is t\u00fa is deise milse p\u00f3ig<br \/>\nCh\u00fans mhairfead beo beidh gean a&#8217;m ort<br \/>\nMar is deas mar a sheolfainn gamhna\u00ed leat, a Eilean\u00f3ir a r\u00fan.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Will you come or will you stay, Eleanor my secret?<br \/>\nOr would you recognize the one who would not slander you, my life&#8217;s portion and my treasure?&#8217;<br \/>\n&#8216;Oh, I will come and I will not stay<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s well I would recognize the one who would not slander me.&#8217;<br \/>\nLovely young maiden, you have the nicest, sweetest kiss<br \/>\nAs long as I live I will desire you<br \/>\nFor I would love to drive the calves with you, Eleanor my secret.<\/p>\n<p>Peadar \u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in, a highly-regarded singer from Aill na Br\u00f3n, Cill Chiar\u00e1in, who has studied Joe Heaney&#8217;s songs and singing over a long period, believes that Joe learned Eilean\u00f3r a R\u00fan from his second cousin Colm \u00d3 Caodh\u00e1in, but says that Colm sang it to a different air; see L. Mac Con Iomaire, Seosamh \u00d3 h\u00c9ana\u00ed: N\u00e1r fh\u00e1gha m\u00e9 b\u00e1s cho\u00edche (Cl\u00f3 Iar-Chonnachta, 2007), 177. S\u00e9amas Ennis transcribed some 212 songs from Colm \u00d3 Caodh\u00e1in for the Irish Folklore Commission. These transcriptions, along with a few sound recordings, are kept in the National Folklore Collection, UCD. At the time of writing, R\u00edonach u\u00ed \u00d3g\u00e1in, the current director of the Collection, is at work on an edition of Colm \u00d3 Caodh\u00e1in&#8217;s contributions to the national archive; it will be a very welcome addition to our understanding of the heritage that inspired Joe Heaney and the other singers of his and subsequent generations.<\/p>\n<p>This was recorded while Joe was Artist in Residence at University of Washington.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amhrain","category-amhrain-i-ngaeilge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1139,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1138\/revisions\/1139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}