{"id":1143,"date":"2016-01-17T08:21:27","date_gmt":"2016-01-17T08:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/?p=1143"},"modified":"2016-01-17T18:04:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-17T18:04:03","slug":"cearbhall-o-dalaigh-seachran-chearbhaill-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-seachran-chearbhaill-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh: Seachr\u00e1n Chearbhaill (1)"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 id=\"t:seinnteoirin1\">Play recording: Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh: Seachr\u00e1n Chearbhaill (1)<\/h2>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-1143-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-seachran-chearbhaill-1.mp3?_=1\" \/><source type=\"audio\/ogg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-seachran-chearbhaill-1.ogg?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-seachran-chearbhaill-1.mp3\">https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/00-micil\/me\u00e1in\/cearbhall-o-dalaigh-seachran-chearbhaill-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: Seachr\u00e1n Chearbhaill (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> 853920.<\/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, story.<\/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> Lucy Simpson.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">D\u00e1ta an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Date)<\/span>:<\/span> 14\/04\/1981.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Su\u00edomh an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Location)<\/span>:<\/span> Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, New York, United States of America.<\/li>\n<li><span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai\">Oc\u00e1id an taifeadta <span class=\"lipead-meiteashonrai-bearla\">(Recording Occasion)<\/span>:<\/span> private.<\/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>Cearbhall\u00e1n &mdash; Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh &mdash; rinne s\u00e9 Eilean\u00f3ir a R\u00fan agus ansin rinne s\u00e9&hellip; an ceann eile faoin siochr\u00e1n<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1<\/sup>, nuair a fuair na daoine aithne Chearbhall\u00e1in chuir a hathair daoine ina dhiaidh, agus th\u00e1inigdar chuig an teach seo agus bh\u00ed time ar bun sa teach, agus nuair a bh\u00ed a fhios ag Cearbhall\u00e1n go rabhdar ag an doras, chuaigh s\u00e9 isteach faoin mbord, agus lig s\u00e9 air f\u00e9in go raibh s\u00e9 a&#8217; r\u00e1mhailt\u00ed. Agus nuair a d&#8217;im\u00edodar amach ar\u00edst, d&#8217;\u00e9irigh s\u00e9 suas agus d\u00fairt s\u00e9 ceathr\u00fa d&#8217;amhr\u00e1n. Th\u00e1inigdar ar ais agus chuaigh s\u00e9 isteach faoin mbord ar\u00edst agus thosaigh s\u00e9 a r\u00e1mhailt\u00ed. Siochr\u00e1n Chearbhall\u00e1in.<\/p>\n<p>Muise l\u00e1 bre\u00e1 a ndeachaigh mise ag breathn\u00fa ar an sp\u00e9irbhean bhre\u00e1<br \/>\n\u00d3 b&#8217;i\u00fad \u00ed ainnir\u00edn na mala\u00ed is na ngeal-chromh l\u00e1mh.<\/p>\n<p>Bh\u00ed a grua mar na balla\u00ed le go mbreactar ar an t-aol mar bhl\u00e1th<br \/>\nIs a seang-mhala\u00ed searca le go nglaoitear air an aol-ts\u00fail bhre\u00e1.<\/p>\n<p>\u00d3 t\u00e1 si\u00fad aici, deir Peadar, m\u00e1s f\u00edor le r\u00e1:<br \/>\n\u00d3 r\u00f3s-bh\u00e9il\u00edn tana\u00ed le caiseal agus taoim-bh\u00e9al tl\u00e1th.<\/p>\n<p>Bh\u00ed pingin ins an maide aici &#8216;gus dh\u00e1 leithphingin eile anuas ar an gcl\u00e1r<br \/>\nN\u00ed raibh f\u00e1il aici ar an gcluiche \u00fadan \u00f3 mhaidin n\u00f3 go n-\u00e9ir\u00edodh l\u00e1.<\/p>\n<p>Muise, an gcluineann sibhse mise libh, a chail\u00edn\u00ed na sr\u00e1ide \u00fadan thiar,<br \/>\nA bhfuil m\u00e9 i ngean oraibh le fada is m\u00e9 faoi ghr\u00e1sta D\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>Tabhair sc\u00e9ala uaim chuici agus aithris di nach taobh l\u00e9i at\u00e1im<br \/>\nMar go bhfuil ansin bean eile \u00fadan le fada do mo chlo\u00ed le gr\u00e1.<\/p>\n<p>\u00d3 l\u00e1n doirne d\u00edomhaine ins gach buine d\u00e1 dlaoi-fholt bhre\u00e1<br \/>\nN\u00f3 an bhfuil sibh in bhur gcodladh mar is mithid d\u00edbh m&#8217;\u00farsc\u00e9al a fh\u00e1il.<\/p>\n<p>Dar seo is dar si\u00fad, is \u00e9 an t-\u00farsc\u00e9al a bh\u00ed ansi\u00fad n\u00e1 tri\u00far bodacha\u00ed i dt\u00fas earraigh a chuaigh ar th\u00f3ir m\u00f3na, iad f\u00e9in agus an d\u00e1 mhada con a bh\u00ed acu. Chuadar ag iarraidh cead coille ar an gCoirb\u00edneach, agus thus s\u00e9 \u00e9 sin d\u00f3ibh. Chrochadar leo a bp\u00e9ire tuanna\u00ed, c\u00fal ramhara, b\u00e9al tana\u00ed. Dhearmadar ar an tapa, thugadar an m\u00edthapa leo. Bhriseadar na giarsa\u00ed, lig siad na maid\u00ed r\u00e1mha leis an sruth.<\/p>\n<p>Muise ar arraingeacha\u00ed agallta dhom n\u00f3 pianta b\u00e1is<br \/>\nMar t\u00e1 m\u00e9 do mo stangadh ag an arraing at\u00e1 dul thr\u00ed mo l\u00e1r.<\/p>\n<p>\u00d3, b&#8217;fhearr liom seal fada a bheinn ag breathn\u00fa ar a m\u00ednchnis bhre\u00e1<br \/>\nN\u00f3 dh\u00e1 br\u00e9agadh go maidin, c\u00e9 go mbaoisi\u00fail dom a leith\u00e9id a r\u00e1.<\/p>\n<p>Bhuel, dar seo &#8216;gus dar si\u00fad, is \u00e9 an t-\u00farsc\u00e9al a bhi ansi\u00fad n\u00e1 Cormac Mac Airt Mac Chuinn Mac Thr\u00e9anmh\u00f3r U\u00ed Bhaoiscne. Chuaigh ag tois na l\u00e9ime bine brice bua a bh\u00ed ar an mBinn \u00c9adair Mhic C\u00e9adta Mhic Amhla\u00ed, san \u00e1it a dt\u00e1inig an ch\u00e9ad loing agus an ch\u00e9ad laoch go h\u00c9irinn ariamh.<\/p>\n<p>Muise dheamhan sin gort socair nach bhogas chugat a&#8217; n\u00f3in\u00edn fraoigh<br \/>\nAgus dheamhan sin loch ar bith gan abhainn a bheith ag dul uaithi s\u00edos.<\/p>\n<p>T\u00e1 an rotha seo sna sodair agus n\u00edl aon ch\u00f3na\u00ed faoi<br \/>\nIs n\u00ed minic a th\u00e1inig sonas gan an donas a bheith ina orla\u00ed thr\u00edd.<\/p>\n<p>Bhuel, dar seo &#8216;gus dar si\u00fad, is \u00e9 an t-\u00farsc\u00e9al a bhi ansi\u00fad n\u00e1 rotha m\u00f3r mo mh\u00e1thar m\u00f3r a chuaigh isteach sa teampall m\u00f3r ag r\u00e9abadh amach deskanna\u00ed. Mara a dtaga sibh roimhe rotha m\u00f3r mo mh\u00e1thar m\u00f3r, d\u00e9anfaidh s\u00e9 an divvil sa teampall m\u00f3r.<\/p>\n<p>Is m\u00e1 th\u00e9ann t\u00fa thart siar ansin ag seanbheain\u00edn bh\u00e9asach<br \/>\nA bhfuil aici scata de ph\u00e1ist\u00ed br\u00e9agach,<br \/>\nCuimil do bhosa go sleamhan dh\u00e1 n-\u00e9adan<br \/>\nIs fainic a locht\u00f3f\u00e1 tada dh\u00e1 dtr\u00e9ithre<br \/>\n&#8216;S an bhaigear\u00f3-\u00e9ar\u00f3, s\u00ed an chraoibh\u00edn gheal donn.<\/p>\n<p>M\u00e1 th\u00e9ann t\u00fa thart siar ansin in easca \u00fadan tom\u00e1in<br \/>\nFainic th\u00fa f\u00e9in ar eas \u00fadan Shiobh\u00e1in:<br \/>\nB\u00e1itheadh dh\u00e1 chaora inti, minseach is mionn\u00e1n<br \/>\nCapall U\u00ed Dh\u00f3naill, a ch\u00fa &#8216;gus a ghearr\u00e1n,<br \/>\n&#8216;S an bhaigear\u00f3-\u00e9ar\u00f3, s\u00ed an chraoibh\u00edn gheal donn.<\/p>\n<h2>Discussion with Lucy Simpson<\/h2>\n<p>LS: The rambles?<\/p>\n<p>JH: The Rambles of Carolan. When he eloped, he eloped with Eleanor. Her father sent people after them, to bring her back. And he disguised himself, you know. And&hellip; wherever they were, her father&#8217;s people came looking for them. He turned out to be a tramp, by the way, and he used to sit down in the middle of the floor and start saying this, so they wouldn&#8217;t recognize him. This makes no sense, you know, what he says in the talk, now. When he&#8217;s finished one verse, he starts talking, by the way that he&#8217;s mad. You get me now? Rambles. He&#8217;s rambling &mdash; like somebody rambling in his sleep&hellip;<br \/>\n[sings Seachr\u00e1n Chearbhaill as above]<\/p>\n<p>LS: What on earth does it mean? What is it?<\/p>\n<p>JH: Well, this is what he was saying, you see, he was rambling, by the way that they wouldn&#8217;t know who he was. He was talking about different things that happened, you know.<\/p>\n<p>LS: Like what?<\/p>\n<p>JH: He was still praising her; but when they looked around and said, &#8216;Who is that man?&#8217; he started rambling then. It makes no sense, what he was saying, but it did, in a way. He was talking about the first boat and the first ship &mdash; the first things that ever came to Ireland came at Binn \u00c9adair [Howth], which was right, you know; and this is what he was saying [when] her father&#8217;s people from &mdash; &#8216;Who&#8217;s that? Who&#8217;s that fool?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>LS: Is the singing&hellip;? Or just the talking, you said, the silly stuff?<\/p>\n<p>JH: The&hellip; talking is the silly thing, the ramble, that&#8217;s when he&#8217;s rambling. The singing is good. Praising her. But you see, every time somebody got suspicious of the man who was singing, he pretended he was mad, he was, you know, he was loony. That&#8217;s a very ancient, that&#8217;s really, really ancient.<\/p>\n<p>LS: Are all those verses different &mdash; all those talking verses?<\/p>\n<p>JH: Oh, they are different, yeah.<\/p>\n<p>LS: What are you talking about? Just &mdash; odds and ends?<\/p>\n<p>JH: They&#8217;re talking about&hellip; Fionn Mac Cumhaill, the first time he ever landed in Ireland in Binn \u00c9adair, you know, the boat he had; and then about two brothers who went to ask permission of the forester to cut down two trees, if they brought with them their two hatchets, you know &mdash; dhearmadar an tapa is thugadar a m\u00ed-thapa leo &mdash; they forgot to say &#8216;good morning&#8217; and they started saying &#8216;good-night&#8217;. Bhriseadar na giarsa\u00ed is lig siad &mdash; They broke the hatchets, and they both fell down and drowned. I mean it&#8217;s only &mdash; it&#8217;s like you waking up with a nightmare<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">2<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<p>LS: Is that a verse? That thing about the forest?<\/p>\n<p>JH: Dar seo is dar si\u00fad, is \u00e9 an t-\u00farsc\u00e9al a bh\u00ed ansi\u00fad n\u00e1 tri\u00far bodacha\u00ed i dt\u00fas earraigh a chuaigh ar th\u00f3ir m\u00f3na, iad f\u00e9in agus an d\u00e1 mhada con a bh\u00ed acu. Chuadar ag iarraidh cead coille ar an gCoirb\u00edneach, agus thus s\u00e9 \u00e9 sin d\u00f3ibh. Chrochadar leo a bp\u00e9ire tuanna\u00ed, c\u00fal ramhara, b\u00e9al tana\u00ed. Dhearmadar an tapa, thugadar an m\u00edthapa leo. Bhriseadar na giarsa\u00ed, lig siad na maid\u00ed r\u00e1mha leis an sruth. That&#8217;s it. But you got to say it quick, you know! It&#8217;s like telling a story &mdash; embellishing a story.<\/p>\n<p>LS: Each verse is about something?<\/p>\n<p>JH: Each verse is about something. He&#8217;s praising the woman between these things, you know. But these things are about something; and it doesn&#8217;t make sense, really, that&#8217;s why it&#8217;s called rambles. And that&#8217;s how he tricked her father&#8217;s people.<\/p>\n<p>LS: What is that last verse where you get real-you slow down?<\/p>\n<p>JH: This is, now&hellip; a different tune, different words [sings]: M\u00e1 th\u00e9ann t\u00fa thart siar ag an seanbheain\u00edn bh\u00e9asach &#8216;If you go back, a little bit, to an old little woman&#8217; [speaks] a bhfuil aici scata de ph\u00e1ist\u00ed br\u00e9agach &#8216;who has a multitude of kids that never tells the truth&#8217; cuimil do bhosa go sleamhan d\u00e1 n-\u00e9adan &#8216;rub your hands gently on your mouth&#8217; is fainic a locht\u00f3-&#8216;but whatever you do, don&#8217;t fault them in front of the woman.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>LS: That&#8217;s how it is?<\/p>\n<p>JH: That&#8217;s how it is.<\/p>\n<p>LS: That&#8217;s the end of the song? Just like that? What does that mean?<\/p>\n<p>JH: That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m trying to tell you again &mdash; this is the rambles of Carolan!<\/p>\n<p>LS: But that&#8217;s not speaking &mdash; that&#8217;s you singing.<\/p>\n<p>JH: Well, M\u00e1 th\u00e9ann t\u00fa thart siar ar an each \u00fadan tom\u00e1in &#8216;If you go back there you&#8217;ll see a horse&#8217; &mdash; Fainic th\u00fa f\u00e9in ar eas \u00fadan Shiobh\u00e1in &#8216;Watch out for Siobh\u00e1in&#8217;s goat&#8217; B\u00e1itheadh dh\u00e1 chaora inti, minseach is mionn\u00e1n &#8216;she drowned two sheep and a goat&#8217; capall U\u00ed Dh\u00f3naill &mdash; O&#8217;Donnell&#8217;s horse, his hound and his foal &#8216;S an bhaigear\u00f3-\u00e9ar\u00f3, s\u00ed an chraoibh\u00edn gheal. This doesn&#8217;t belong &mdash; the point is, this is absolutely the end of the song.<\/p>\n<p>LS: That&#8217;s the very end of the song?<\/p>\n<p>JH: That&#8217;s the very end.<\/p>\n<p>LS: I thought you talked<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">3<\/sup>&hellip;<\/p>\n<p>JH: Well, Dar seo &#8216;gus dar si\u00fad, is \u00e9 an t-\u00farsc\u00e9al a bhi ansi\u00fad: Rotha m\u00f3r mo mh\u00e1thar m\u00f3r a chuaigh isteach sa teampall m\u00f3r ag r\u00e9abadh- Rotha m\u00f3r mo mh\u00e1thar m\u00f3r: &#8216;My mother&#8217;s billy-goat went into the church and he started tearing out the desks in the church. Mara a dtaga sibh roimhe rotha m\u00f3r- If you don&#8217;t stop my grandmother&#8217;s ram &#8211; or goat &#8211; he&#8217;ll create a divvil in the church.&#8217; See, these things were never meant for translation. Pure, old Irish<sup class=\"tagairt-n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">4<\/sup>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"n\u00f3ta\u00ed-bun-leathanaigh\">\n<h2 id=\"t:notai\">Notes<\/h2>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">1. The word seachr\u00e1n is spelt siochr\u00e1n here to reflect Joe&#8217;s pronunciation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">2. Joe&#8217;s translation is inaccurate. The hatchets weren&#8217;t broken and nobody drowned. The passage actually goes something like this: <i class=\"treaslitri\u00fa\">By this and by that, the story was this: three old fellows at the beginning of spring went looking for turf, themselves and their two hound dogs. They went to Corbett looking for permission to go into the forest, and he gave it to them. They took with them their two wide-backed, thin-bladed hatchets. They forgot their quickness and took their slowness with them: they broke the joists and let the oars drift.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">3 In performing the Seachr\u00e1n for Lucy, Joe transposed the final spoken passage with the two verses of the second song, so that the spoken passage came last. Normally he performed it so that the two verses ending with <i class=\"cor-cainte-teangan-eile\">an chraoibh\u00edn gheal donn<\/i> came last.<\/p>\n<p class=\"n\u00f3ta-bun-leathanaigh\">4. Joe&#8217;s translation goes astray here as well &mdash; though, interestingly, he tries to sustain the inaccuracy when he &#8216;corrects&#8217; himself near the end. There is no billy-goat, and his mother wasn&#8217;t involved. What it actually says is: <i class=\"treaslitri\u00fa\">By this and by that, the story was this: my grandmother&#8217;s big ram went into the big [Protestant] church tearing out pews. If you don&#8217;t put a stop to my grandmother&#8217;s big ram, he&#8217;ll play the divil in the big church.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>This extraordinary tour-de-force has been the subject of much study. For those interested in learning more, here are a few places to start:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The poetic form used in the Seachr\u00e1n is known as cros\u00e1ntacht, a mixture of verse and prose. For a discussion of this form, see Alan Harrison, An Chros\u00e1ntacht (Dublin, 1979).<\/li>\n<li>For more about Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh, Seachr\u00e1n Chearbhaill and the song Eilean\u00f3ir na R\u00fan, see James Doan, &#8216;The Folksong Tradition of Cearbhall \u00d3 D\u00e1laigh&#8217; in Folklore, Vol. 96, No. 1 (1985), 67-86; 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; New Hibernia Review (2011).<\/li>\n<li>\u00d3 Laoire, Lillis and Sean Williams, Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song-Man. Oxford University Press.<\/li>\n<li>Three of Joe&#8217;s performances of Seachr\u00e1n Chearbhaill, recorded commercially.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Joe has a point when he says that &#8216;these things were never meant for translation&#8217;. The great delight of this song is in its sounds &mdash; the amazing succession of rhymes and alliterative words that vividly illustrate the Irish love of language for its own sake. This aspect can be appreciated even by those who don&#8217;t understand a word of Irish, especially once they&#8217;ve understood that the meaning of the words is meant to be mysterious anyway. For those who want to see a literal translation based on Joe Heaney&#8217;s text of the Seachr\u00e1n, one is included &mdash; along with full discussion of this important text &mdash; in \u00d3 Laoire, L., and Williams, S., Bright Star of the West: Joe Heaney, Irish Song-Man (Oxford University Press).<\/p>\n<p>A translation is also supplied with a recording of Seachr\u00e1n Chearbhaill made by Peadar \u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in, one of the finest singers to have emerged from the tradition in recent years (Mo Chuid den tSaol: Traditional Songs from Conamara, Cl\u00f3 Iar-Chonnachta CICD 131). Some of his CD notes are included online, including his own text of the Seachr\u00e1n and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.grafxsource.com\/MCS\/Cuid_den_tSaol.html\">his translation of it<\/a>. Note that \u00d3 Ceannabh\u00e1in&#8217;s text is based on a version collected at the turn of the nineteenth century by M\u00edche\u00e1l and Tom\u00e1s \u00d3 M\u00e1ille near Cor na Mona. This text is more internally coherent than Joe&#8217;s, which has suffered the vicissitudes of oral tradition to the point where it&#8217;s hard to differentiate the passages which were intentionally mysterious from those which have simply become so over time.<\/p>\n<p>The form of the Seachr\u00e1n is basically as Joe describes it to Lucy: a mixture of sung lines (the structure of the air puts them across as couplets, but they may originally have been stanzas or paragraphs of different lengths) alternating with the prose rambles. With the exception of the last two stanzas, the sung portions refer generally to the vagaries of love, while the prose sections &mdash; the first two of them, anyway &mdash; are similar to the stylized, formulaic &#8216;runs&#8217; occurring in stories about Fionn Mac Cumhaill and other heroes.<\/p>\n<p>The third prose passage, with its use of English and its reference to a Protestant church, is more likely just a play-on-words; it doesn&#8217;t appear in the version collected by the \u00d3 M\u00e1ille brothers. Neither do the two stanzas ending in the refrain &#8216;s a bhaiger\u00f3 \u00e9ar\u00f3, s\u00ed an chraoibh\u00edn gheal donn, which involve neither courship nor Fenian lore.<\/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":[3,11,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amhrain","category-amhrain-i-ngaeilge","category-scealaiocht"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143","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=1143"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1275,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1143\/revisions\/1275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.joeheaney.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}