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Aige Bruach Dhún Réimhe
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Recorded by: Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh
Written by: Trad. Arr. Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh / Manus Lunny
The poet Art Mac Cumhaidh is lamenting the fact that the famous Ulster chieftains the O’Neill’s are all in Spain, after the Flight of the Earls, 1607.
Caoineadh é seo, cionas go bhfuil an ceannceathrú a bhí ag Clann Ui Néill I gCaislán na Glasdromainne I gCoille Dhúin Réimhe in oir-dheiscirt Ard Mhacha tréighte agus scriosta san 18ú Céad. Comhrá idir and file Art Mac Cumhaidh agus smaolach atá san amhrán seo ag cuir síos mar atá Clann Uí Néill sa Spáinn…. in diaidh Teitheadh na n’Iarlaí.
Mairéad – Vocals
Manus – Bouzouki / Guitar / Programming
Michael Mc Goldrick – Flute
Graham Henderson - Keyboards
Translated to English by - Tristan Rosenstock
Caoineadh é seo, cionas go bhfuil an ceannceathrú a bhí ag Clann Ui Néill I gCaislán na Glasdromainne I gCoille Dhúin Réimhe in oir-dheiscirt Ard Mhacha tréighte agus scriosta san 18ú Céad. Comhrá idir and file Art Mac Cumhaidh agus smaolach atá san amhrán seo ag cuir síos mar atá Clann Uí Néill sa Spáinn…. in diaidh Teitheadh na n’Iarlaí.
Mairéad – Vocals
Manus – Bouzouki / Guitar / Programming
Michael Mc Goldrick – Flute
Graham Henderson - Keyboards
Translated to English by - Tristan Rosenstock
Lyrics
By the Banks of Dunreavey
By the banks of Dunreavey in day’s solitude
Lovely were her flower-white limbs
I heard the roaring of the waves of Ireland,
And sounds up high in the sky,
The elements in pain and their backs together
And the face of the sun concealed,
And the choicest of birds proclaiming the news
With sorrow that the Jackdaws had died.
Once the bird heard me mentioning the seed of Niall
With sorrow he flew away
His wings were spread down to the grass
And he hit his sides in despair
Saying that my story is sorrowful and foolish
Since they were put under secure headstones
And if I looked myself under that same tomb,
I’d only find clay and bones.
Eoghan Rua, my woe for you to be in the earth,
You who would put the foreign mercenary to flight,
And noble, gifted Feidhlim was taken away by force
To Leinster where he would die.
Lord Iveagh and the noble Irish,
Death has powdered their bones,
And where will their likes be found again to serve
Since they were laid out in earth and in coffins.
O dear thrush, you see yourself that the Gaels of this place have been overthrown,
Try to leap and loop in the air and get a better standing abroad,
If you don’t get a branch of the O’Neill family
In the powerful lands of Spain,
And tell the one who survives death
That the fated white-castle has been captured.
By the banks of Dunreavey in day’s solitude
Lovely were her flower-white limbs
I heard the roaring of the waves of Ireland,
And sounds up high in the sky,
The elements in pain and their backs together
And the face of the sun concealed,
And the choicest of birds proclaiming the news
With sorrow that the Jackdaws had died.
Once the bird heard me mentioning the seed of Niall
With sorrow he flew away
His wings were spread down to the grass
And he hit his sides in despair
Saying that my story is sorrowful and foolish
Since they were put under secure headstones
And if I looked myself under that same tomb,
I’d only find clay and bones.
Eoghan Rua, my woe for you to be in the earth,
You who would put the foreign mercenary to flight,
And noble, gifted Feidhlim was taken away by force
To Leinster where he would die.
Lord Iveagh and the noble Irish,
Death has powdered their bones,
And where will their likes be found again to serve
Since they were laid out in earth and in coffins.
O dear thrush, you see yourself that the Gaels of this place have been overthrown,
Try to leap and loop in the air and get a better standing abroad,
If you don’t get a branch of the O’Neill family
In the powerful lands of Spain,
And tell the one who survives death
That the fated white-castle has been captured.