>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Admhaím na Piscataway,
Anacostank, Pamunkey,
Mattapanient, Nangemeick,
agus Tauxehent, idir Aibhní
an Potomac agus Anacostia,
mar chaomhnóirí cearta
agus mar chainteoirí cearta don
talamh ar a bhfuilim im sheasamh.
A lucht éisteachta agus féachana,
beannaím do bhur sinsir agus do
mhuintir dhúchasach
na tíre ar a seasann tú.
Is de bhunadh
Ghaeltacht Mhúscraí mé
in Éirinn agus is cainteoir
dúchais Gaoluinne mé,
teanga dúchais na háite sin.
♪ Tréimhse a chaitheas
seal go h-aerach ♪
♪ I measc mo ghaolta
go soilbhir sóil ♪
♪ Gan suím i gcleasaibh ná
i gcúrsaí an tsaoil seo ♪
♪ Do chuireadh
m’intinn ar seachrán ♪
♪ Thugas gean is urraim
dom bhaile dhúchais ♪
♪ Fuair cion is clú
ar fud Inse Fáil ♪
♪ Is ní thréigfead feasta
an grá ró-dhlúth san ♪
♪ Do Bhaile Bhúirne
go bhfaighidh mé bás. ♪
♪ Is breá é amharc a
cnoc is a sléibhte ♪
♪ Is a gleannta féarmhara
ar maidin cheoidh ♪
♪ Is fuaim gach caise
ag sníomh go h-éasca ♪
♪ Go sroiseann
béal na Mara móir’ ♪
♪ Is breá é a coillte
‘na gcrannaibh ndíreacha ♪
♪ Ag fás go líonmhar
i measc gach gleann ♪
♪ Go bhfaigheann an
sionnach scáth is díon ann ♪
♪ An dhruid chiardhubh
an broc is an creabhar ♪
♪ ITá Baile Bhuirne
go fairsing fáilteach ♪
♪ Ag riar ar tháintibh
do ghabhann an treo ♪
♪ Go bhfuil grá ar lasadh
i gcroí gach aon ann ♪
♪ Rug barr ar aon
ní dá bhfeaca fós ♪
♪ Bíonn trial na sluaite
don Tiobraid Naofa ♪
♪ Tá le cian i gcliú
is i ngradam mhór ♪
♪ Is ímpím feasta
ar Ghobnait Naofa ♪
♪ Bheith mar dhíon is scáth
dhúinn pé áit go ngeobham. ♪
[Applause]
>> John Fenn:
Welcome, everyone.
My name is John Fenn.
I'm the Head of Research at the
American Folk Life Center
here in the Library of Congress.
Welcome to the Benjamin
Botkin Folklife Lecture Series
with our guest, Cormac Ó hAodha.
We'll learn a little bit more
about him in a few minutes.
On behalf of all the staff and
our director at the center,
I welcome you into this room.
The American Folklife Center
documents and shares the many
expressions of human experience
to inspire, revitalize, and
perpetuate living
cultural traditions.
Designated by the U.S. Congress
as the National Center for
Folklife Documentation and
Research, the center meets its
mission by stewarding archival
collections, creating public
programs, and exchanging
knowledge and expertise.
The Center's vision is to
encourage diversity of
expression and foster community
participation and the collective
creation of cultural memory.
The Bakken Lecture Series is
one way we do this, and we have
a special treat today because
we have a scholar and a
practitioner in
the room with us.
Cormac and I decided to use
this in conversation approach to
kind of offer some context of
the work he's doing both as
a singer and as a scholar.
And we're going to talk about
that, talk about some of the
collections he's looking at,
and get into a few things about
the Musgraves singing tradition
that Cormac comes out of.
Now so Cormac Ó hAodha you
are the Lomax fellow holding
what is more formally known as
the John B Lovelace Fellowship
for the study of the
Alan Lomax Collection.
We have no acronym for that
here at the Library of Congress,
although we have an
acronym for everything else.
What does this position mean
for you, this opportunity?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: It means
a huge, golden opportunity.
And one that comes
once in a lifetime really.
Thank you, John,
by the way.
So I'm here since
the very beginning
of January this year.
And I'm working on the
Alan Lomax collection
that's here, physically
in the library.
I had intended to get this
plug in a little later, but
I think of doing it now.
And you can all access the
Alan Lomax collection online, but
also here in the American
Folklife Center Reading Room,
which is just around
the corner here.
TThat's that plug.
>> John Fenn:
I'll help you get there.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
So also maybe to--
To give full disclosure,
I prepared a lot of paper there.
Well, the printer, it turned
out to be a lot of paper.
I don't think it's-- I don't
think-- and sitting up here with
John, it makes it easier for me
in a conversation rather than
you looking at me
reading from a page.
So I'm going to try and wing it
and make up as little as possible.
[Laughter]
Well, I'll be making it.
Making it all up,
of course, but.
So...
And I may consult my
paper from time to time.
What we agreed to do was
that I would try to speak
and sing today and
hopefully maybe get,
maybe 4 or 5 songs,
or maybe even more.
And it's--
Don't be surprised if I--
If you see why is he sitting
down for that song?
One of the technical gentlemen
asked me, would I be
sitting or standing?
I don't know.
[Laughter]
There's less, there's less
potential for feeling
that you're on stage.
This is Sean-nos singing,
which I'll get into talking about
was never designed for stage.
Like so many other
traditional art forms, I'm sure.
So I may well sing sitting
down for that reason, if you can
follow that logic.
It's also where I learned a lot
of my songs would have been in
the pub and not just any pub,
the highest pub in Ireland,
called the [Inaudible], where
I would have learned from
local singers.
It's actually in County Kerry.
You can cut that out after, Glen.
[Laughter]
But it would be considered
the local pub for
people from the village that
I'm from called Cooley and the
next village, Ballyvaughan
and so on.
And that's where I would
have started what I consider to
be an apprenticeship
that I'm still on.
Learning from people
who were singing there.
But anyway, that's a long
way of saying that
you would find yourself sitting
down in a pub as well.
You don't stand up to sing.
Not all the time anyway.
You could also be standing and
then be asked to sing.
And there's an interesting
thing I might get into about,
a noble call.
It's not everywhere.
It's basically the--
it's a way maybe of
acknowledgement or maybe a way
of keeping the singing going in
that environment, which
happens to be a pub.
Where if you've just
sang a song, you're
entitled to or expected
to choose the next singer.
and that can't be
yourself, right?
Which, unfortunately,
is what's going to.
>> John Fenn:
[Inaudible] Right?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Yeah. So
if somebody keeps their hand up
long enough here,
I'll call them.
Okay. But I'm talking about,
yeah, where I started learning
these songs as an adult.
That was a charming because
then you can get coached.
If you've just sang, you can
get coached about who should
sing next, and you can ignore
that, or you can go with it and
and ask Marter, Breeder
Donald or Sean or whoever it is
to sing and,
well, unless there's really
some good reason they
can't refuse to sing.
>> John Fenn: And I've been
practicing my good reasons.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Yeah, very good.
And you can't,
as I said, you can't choose
yourself or you shouldn't.
And that's why maybe, I
don't know, it feels a bit
strange if somebody in that
kind of environment will just
suddenly offer a song.
And you'll also find that the--
And I'm not talking
about myself.
I'm talking about 30 years ago.
The better singers won't even be
asked until the end of the night.
Because they can refuse, or
they usually have their own ways
anyway of avoiding being asked.
And people who don't understand
that system aren't aware
of it and don't put themselves
forward as a selector, you know.
But that definitely wasn't
on the script that's here.
>> John Fenn:
We threw the script out.
But but I want to start with,
you opened and indeed
sung in Irish just now.
And I'll say that he read the
library's land acknowledgement
statement that he had
translated into Irish, and then
and added some at the end,
which I'll let him talk about.
But I also want you to
tell us a little about the Irish
language and about
the Gaeltacht.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Right. Very good.
Oh, the Gaeltacht. Thanks, John.
So the Irish language, which
sometimes is, maybe all the time
in this country, is referred to
as Gaelic and used the word
Irish, because if you're in
Ireland and pejorative is too
strong a word, but nobody,
nobody calls, not even people
who don't speak, not
even Irish English
speakers use the word Gaelic.
Just use the word Irish the
same as you use the word French
or German or English.
Okay. Anyway, so that's the
Irish language, right?
The Irish [Inaudible]
is in Gaelic,
there's various dialects.
We're up there.
Okay. The one on the right, the
one where you see the sea.
That's not a pirate joke.
Around it that's today.
Okay. The Gaeltacht are those green
areas where the Irish language is
spoken in the community.
And not by everybody, but
is a community language.
And they have their
own dialects as well.
And I suppose not surprisingly,
they also have their
own Sean-nos styles
as distinct from each other.
They're all in the Irish
language, and I'll speak.
I'm slowly letting go of the
document in my mind.
And maybe that's
not a good idea.
I've just realized
it's an upcoming slide.
I'll talk about Sean-nos--
>> Johne Fenn: Yeah, talk
about Sean-nos a little bit.
>> Now?
>> Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. All right.
So what is Sean-nos?
That's a very,
very big question.
And very few people agree
even on what it is.
So what you'll hear me
saying is what I agree with.
And maybe not everybody
agrees with what that is.
So to start with
explaining the two--
So it's it's not even a
compound word.
It's two words connected
with a dash or a hyphen.
Right? Sean-nos
The word Shan in Irish,
the English word to correspond
to that would be old.
and nos means way, habit,
tradition, style, method.
Okay, so the old way.
But it's interesting
that the term Sean-nos
would not have been in existence
before the turn of
the last century.
Whereas the actual singing
that the words are trying to
describe would have been for
centuries in existence before that.
Because in an Irish speaking
world, if you want to
look at where the maps are
greener, well, they're not
concerned with label.
It was the way singing was done.
It survives in the
map on the right.
And so, as John pronounced
exceptionally well, the word
Gaeltacht means these areas
where Irish is a community
spoken language
as well as English.
Anyone who speaks Irish in
Ireland, unless they're very,
very young,
speaks English as well.
But you have--
I believe it isn't--
It isn't and there may be
reasons for it.
It isn't celebrated enough or
even acknowledged enough
a native speaker, I think
there's a lot of issues to do
with that we were a colony
and that we were colonized
linguistically as
well as physically.
And I'm working out
some of these ideas.
I'd like to-- I've introduced
the word finishing,
but I don't know
if that's happening.
I'm finishing a PhD on this
tradition of singing.
It's called [Inaudible]
or the moose scree
singing tradition.
In the Folklore Department
of UCC or the
University in Cork
in Ireland and
the time I've spent here
that has not yet come
to an end, thankfully.
Yet, I'm getting a lot of ideas
about how to finish
this PhD, right?
Anyone who knows that struggle
knows what I'm talking about.
So that's Sean-nos, Gaeltacht
and the Irish language.
These are all like--
These are all givens.
If you're-- for somebody
who grows up inside it,
I think it's--
Well, it is alluded to in a,
you know, graphical terms as
emic as opposed to etic.
I don't know.
I mean, I feel as if often
in my life I felt as if I'm
[Speaking in foreign language]
And I'll explain that,
Osheen you might notice is
is a name.
It's an Irish name
of the Fianna.
He was Finn Mccool's
son that went away.
This is going to-- I'm going to
fall into a wormhole here now.
So I'm going to make it really
fast.
In Irish mythology,
there was a band of heroes
called the Fianna who protected
the island of Ireland,
which you see there.
And it would have
been all green.
Okay. And there's no borders on any
of those maps either, by the way.
And he met a beautiful woman
called Neve Keane Vor
Neve of the golden hair,
and he went away with her
to the land of eternal youth.
Right. Tir na Nog,
an island of eternal youth.
Anyway, when he came back--
Where am I going with this?
When he came back--
>> Growing up in--
>> Yes.
>> Thank you. John.
>> I'm here.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: So there's a
phrase in Irish where you feel like
he came back from having spent.
He didn't know it, but he had
spent 900 years in Tir na Nog,
and he pleaded with, I suppose,
Neve's father, who gave him.
Eventually he gave in and gave
him a big white horse, and one
condition he could return to
Ireland from wherever the island
in the Atlantic is, okay, and
not to step foot on the land of
Ireland. But when he saw, he
said, yeah, yeah, yeah, fine.
No problem. And you know what's
going to happen and, and so but
I'll try and control or
minimize that story.
We're not here talking about
that. But he did come home.
The strap under the horse--
He he noticed that
the people of Ireland
were actually
getting very small.
They weren't giants
like himself anymore.
And he came across a bunch of
men trying to move a big stone,
a big rock, and he said,
oh, for God's sake, I'll help you.
And he just started pushing
it with his hand without
getting off the horse.
Okay. Storytellers would make
a much better job of this, right?
Anyway.
The saddle broke.
He fell off the horse because
it was a huge boulder, and he
effectively stood
on the land of Ireland.
And so he aged all of
the time he was away.
And died.
Okay. But our [Inaudible] is
If you feel like you've
arrived somewhere,
too late.
No, I'm not saying
that I'm going
around like that
all the time. Right?
[Laughter]
You know, nobody is, but
I think it's a nice, poetic
reference to our mythology
and so on.
I actually had a
translation company in a
previous lifetime and I called it
Oshin from my own satisfaction.
I didn't tell anyone
that long story, right?
Anyway.
Now, you might help me again.
Why did I say [Inaudible]
Yeah. Maybe to say that there's
an obverse to that as well,
is that the area I'm from,
and at least one other person
in the room is from,
is more scree.
So it's I feel like getting up
and pointing at the--
I should have got a laser.
You can see where County
Cork is at the south west.
It's this one.
That's where we are from.
Okay. This one here.
It's not in Kerry.
It's in County Cork.
Okay. And people have come
collecting there for the last,
this might be surprising.
Not just Alan Lomax in 1951
and other American song collectors
after him that I may remember
if I resist taking up
the document again.
But collectors have been coming
to Muscari, which is made up of
maybe four small villages
Cooley, Ballyvourney,
Kilnamartyra and Bilanga eeric.
I'm sure maybe and Ranieri.
Okay, I don't think
I've left anybody out. No.
And I ended up naming the
houses and someone will say,
I was left out.
But this area has is-- like
all Gaeltacht areas,
is the heartland of
the Irish language.
It's also a, particularly in
the case of Muskerry, a very
strong has a very
deep well of these songs.
And they're not just songs
in Irish, they're songs in
English and they're
songs that are
in Irish and in English at the
same time, which in song studies
has been given strange
title, Macaronic.
It is something to do with
Italian and a quilt, right?
So I did read it, right?
Yeah, they're bilingual songs
and I might sing one of them at
the end, or I'm still enslaved
by this document.
It was at the end, but maybe
for time I really concerned that
I might be going on too much
about one thing and not another.
Maybe it's time--
>> John Fenn:
Go to the next.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Yeah, I think it's--
Yes. Thanks.
>> John Fenn: You're
going to sing, right?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Yes.
>> You'll give us another song?
>> Yes.
>> John Fenn:
We'll call on you.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Okay.
Well, according to the system,
you have to sing first.
[Laughter]
Yeah, yeah.
But John was singing earlier,
so that counts, right?
So the man on th
slide on your screen there
is Sean Eoin a Bhab
or Suilleabhain.
I never met him.
I think he's a second
cousin of my mother's dad.
He made the song that I'm going
to sing now that I learned from
my national school master.
Just to give you
an idea of where
we or I learned to sing.
It's in the home.
At home, in the home.
It's also outside the home.
Right? In school.
And then as you grow up. I
suppose if you're any good,
you're asked to sing at
various things, right?
Whether they're house parties,
haven't been in one of
those in a while, and I don't
know, that's after closing time
when people don't want to
go to their own homes yet.
They'd go to a house
and they'd sing.
Until very late or early
in the morning.
But this particular song is
called Táim-se agus Máire.
And it's not--
It's not hard to
sing or to remember
because I learned
it 30 years ago
from, yes, my national school
master, Micheál Ó Ceallaigh.
I think there's a picture of
his dad on one of the slides
coming up, actually.
Folklore collector.
Printcious Vocalic.
Yes. I just wanted to--
You were asking me.
What am I doing here?
Well, I think I
tried to answer that.
I'm working on the Alan Lomax
collection and a number of other
projects. We'll get
to some of those.
But I couldn't have been here--
I couldn't come here without
the support and I suppose
permission of my family at home.
And I just want to
acknowledge that to them and
I don't really dedicate songs.
Right. But I'm going to dedicate
this one to them.
I'm going to stay
sitting this time.
The song is a
very lighthearted song.
It's about a man whose--
Well, it's himself, actually.
And he's married a woman called
Maura and the wonderful life
he has with her.
Or they have together, right?
I mean, yeah, that's
the song basically, but
try and listen. If you can imagine,
he's describing his contentment
with his life.
And there's a
refrain in it as well.
Or [Inaudible] a chorus.
And you'll notice he's
singing the same thing.
You can join in,
please, if you like.
So you'll notice when it
comes after each verse.
♪ Táimse agus Máire
go sásta inár n-aigne ♪
♪ Ó nascadh i bpáirt sinn
ag an áltóir ró-bheannaithe ♪
♪ Thug sise grá thar cháirde
is thar fhearaibh dhom ♪
♪ Thógas ar láimh í is go
brách brách ní scarfaimid ♪
♪ Bead-sa ag seinnt ceoil dóibh ♪
♪ Poirtíní béil agam rex-fol-dí-ó,
rex-fol-dí-i-é-dil-di-dí ♪
♪ Tá torthaí ag fás im
gháirdín go slachtaithe ♪
♪ Úlla, spionáin
agus cúiríní dearga ♪
♪ Siúcra i mála le
ráithe go taiscithe ♪
♪ Chun subh is milseáin
don bháb is don bhanaltra ♪
♪ Bead-sa ag seinnt ceoil dóibh ♪
♪ Poirtíní béil agam rex-fol-dí-ó,
rex-fol-dí-i-é-dil-di-dí ♪
♪ Tá torthaí ag fás im
gháirdín go slachtaithe ♪
♪ Úlla, spionáin
agus cúiríní dearga ♪
♪ Siúcra i mála le
ráithe go taiscithe ♪
♪ Chun subh is milseáin
don bháb is don bhanaltra ♪
♪ Bead-sa ag seinnt ceoil dóibh ♪
♪ Poirtíní béil agam rex-fol-dí-ó,
rex-fol-dí-i-é-dil-di-dí ♪
♪ Is í mo chéile-se Máire an
stáidbhean mhodhail mhaisiúil ♪
♪ I ag luascadh an chliabháin
is an bháb ina sheascaireacht ♪
♪ Stoca ina láimh is na
bioráin innti ag preabarnaigh ♪
♪ Í ag cniotáil is ag
crónán don leanbhín ♪
♪ Bead-sa ag
seinnt ceoil dóibh ♪
♪ Poirtíní béil agam rex-fol-dí-ó,
rex-fol-dí-i-é-dil-di-dí ♪
♪ Is é mo ghuí chun an Ard-Mhic
a ghrásta a scaipeadh orainn ♪
♪ Is go leanfaidh an t-ádh sinn
gan ghátar gan easpa orainn ♪
♪ Is nuair a thiocfaidh Lá an
Áirimh in áitreamh úd Iosaphet ♪
♪ Go dtóga Dia ar láimh
sinn ináirde go Parrthas ♪
♪ Bead-sa ag seinnt ceoil dóibh ♪
♪ Poirtíní béil agam rex-fol-dí-ó,
rex-fol-dí-i-é-dil-di-dí ♪
[Applause]
>> John Fenn:
Thank you, Cormac.
It's probably important to
emphasize that Sean-nos singing,
it's unaccompanied acapella
voice only singing.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
If I read my document,
they would have heard that.
>> John Fenn: Yeah, hopefully,
they know by now.
But again, trying to provide
context to things. Right?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
It can be--
It can be a challenge, I suppose,
for Sean-nos singers who are
women and men, girls and boys.
It can be a challenge--
They're constantly-- we're
constantly being asked to
explain ourselves, right?
or to maybe answer
this terrible question.
What's the English of that?
Maybe I just take that worse
than most people I don't know.
Maybe I do it and forget maybe.
But you struggle on. Right?
Oh, yeah.
What I was going to say
was, in addition to that
let's say in this
scenario of recorded music or
commercially recorded music,
Sean-nos singers are constantly
under pressure to have,
at the very least, something
going on in the background, right?
Whether it's this kind of
Celtic fog, a synthesizer button
or something like that.
And I was, as part of
my field work at home,
Emic field work,
for my PhD that
I'm finishing,
one of the singers that I
interviewed told me I was
delighted, really delighted
that she's recording
an album, Acapella.
And she was saying, I'm
wondering whether-- So I knew.
I feel I know anyway, exactly
the pressure she's feeling that she
needs to have some kind of
instrumental or maybe a full
band playing.
Right? In fact, she sings
with a band usually, but she's
talking about a record
of her own and
I really hope she chooses
to sing voice only because
she's a fantastic singer
and that's it. I think you all
get what I'm saying there, right?
You know, you can
put music onto it after,
you know, if you want.
So maybe I'll take
a cue off the slide.
>> John Fenn:
I was thinking, I mean, this is
a good opportunity to talk a little
bit about not Lomax so much.
We'll assume many people know
who he is or can look him up.
But the very particular element
of the Lomax collection you're
here to work on, because it's,
it's a small slice, and
it has to do with home.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Yeah.
It's very small, but for me
it's the most important bit.
He spent three days in
Muskerry in the part of Ireland.
And three days, maybe
as many weeks only in Ireland
in the year 1951,
there are others in the room.
Many others in this room who
would be much better than me to
speak about how important
Alan Lomax and his work was.
So I'm not going to try
to folk music and to the
recording of it over.
Is it 60 or 70?
>> John Fenn:
Close to 70.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Okay. Over 70 years.
I just wanted to make a very
short point on that because,
you know, there was a time I didn't
know anything about Alan Lomax.
He didn't just
collect in America.
He collected outside of America
as well in the Caribbean,
in many locations in Europe
Italy, Spain, Portugal, I think
Romania. And then...
Oh, there's another word to
put on your list of don't say
British Isles, but please, not
for the rest of today anyway.
If you're referring to
Ireland in it, never say it.
So things are evolving, right?
I mean, the terms probably
being it, it's in the last
single digit years that the
Irish Department of Education
actually legislated for textbooks
to not use the British Isles.
Right. I'm not up here
to go on about that.
Right. So. But so.
But Lomax was using the terms
British Isles and that's okay.
It's historical. Right.
But it wasn't in the
British Isles in 1951 either.
But that's another story.
It certainly wasn't.
So he came to Ireland in 1951
and again in 1953, I believe.
But in 1951 he did a tour of
the important places,
County Cork and
Galway and Donegal.
So you'll remember the slide
that showed the green patches.
So Cork is southwest.
Galway is west and
Donegal is northwest,
west, west, west. That's where
you'll find the Irish language
and that's where you'll
find Sean-nos singing.
And so he came to Muskerry
in 1951 and he recorded, I think
maybe eight singers.
And you're going
to hear one of them.
Shortly.
Can I have a time
check just in case
that I'm going to
way, way-- Yeah. Okay.
We're going to see it sooner
than-- I just saw John's watch.
And her name is
Elizabeth Cronin.
Yeah.
And if you are interested
and this is, look, okay.
It's a plug, right? But
Elizabeth Cronin does a book
with two CDs for singing in the
American Folk Life Center just
around the corner, if you
want to check that out.
Oh, thanks.
So you can recognize, even
from the back of the room, those
red pins in a Google Maps
kind of environment.
They're the places
Alan Lomax collected.
Not, sorry, in the back of
the room, but all the way from
the back of the room you can
see on the screen, those red pins
are where Alan Lomax collected.
I just make a quick reference to
the Association of Cultural Equity,
or ACE is a good acronym.
There's a lot of them aren't
good, but that's a good one. Right.
Which I believe Lomax
himself founded in 1983.
Anyway.
There's Alan Lomax's material,
not just from where, where,
where, where I'm from, but from
all the places with the red pins
on the slide there.
And you can consult them online.
And the Lomax.
Just use the search terms,
as are Lomax Digital Archive.
That will get you
straight to it.
We're going to hear one clip of--
is that okay for that slide.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Maybe we should--
Okay. Can I just mention
and I did say in my document
Cormac improvises here.
So I'm not going to go to the
to the document now but
I will improvise and quickly.
So this is another thing that
I'm developing here as part of
my time here as,
as Lomax Scholar is.
And yeah, I invented
my own acronym as well.
DHORI. Okay. Digital Humanities
optimized record improver.
Yeah, improvement
keeps changing.
And anyway, I'll let
you read the text there.
I'll keep going because we don't
have more than 20 minutes left.
Yeah. So those two people are--
So what DHORI is about is
digital discoverability to get
material from the archive back
to the community from where
it was collected.
And in the case of many
places, I'm concerned with
the place that I'm from and the
material that was collected in
that place. I keep avoiding
saying Muskerry, because I'm
worried you might not know
where it is, but I think
you probably do by now.
Okay. This material in a
lot of what's called glams,
sorry, galleries, libraries,
archives, museums, repositories,
I'll just call them. Right.
In Dublin, in London and
here that without digital,
nobody like me could really
consult them or hope to
maybe even know
that they're there.
Right. So that's what I'm
developing is a process.
I don't know what words
I put up on the text there,
is to digitally get them back, not
just to get them back and throw
them there. It's to consult
with people who are active and
passive. This is the jargon,
right, bearers of the
tradition. So people who know
where these songs came from,
who can add what's called
metadata to the record,
the repositories in Dublin,
there's about 20 of them.
And I think that place,
they're up in Dublin.
Well, I am kind of, but
I'm hoping that they'll say
what? He went to Washington
to figure this out, to come back
and get us and this is where I
didn't do it justice.
From the last file, ace
have a very clear and noble
process or initiative
of repatriating
the material that Alan Lomax
collected to the creators of
that material, be they the
singers or the musicians to
community libraries or
infotech or whatever they are.
And this ace has done with
Lomax collected material to
places in Italy, Scotland,
all over the south.
>> John Fenn:
Throughout the United States.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
In the United States.
>> John Fenn: Often working
with the Library of Congress,
because we're the repository
of record for their material.
So it's it's a
great collaboration.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: So I'm hoping
the same library of Congress
will be helping me move a,
not move, but to convince
repositories in Dublin or
outside of Muskerry that
they should be sharing it back
to where it came from.
And I'm pretty sure
they will get on board.
>> John Fenn:
Should we go to Bess now?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
I'll just say who they are.
I'm sorry. That's
just the left third.
The middle is
Proinseas O Ceallaigh,
folklore collector,
I mentioned earlier the guy
who I learned that song from,
TÁIM-SE AGUS MÁIRE, that song.
That's his father.
Micheál Ó Ceallaigh father,
Proinseas O Ceallaigh.
He collected,
and as soon as I stopped talking,
he moved to the next slide.
Okay, When is that
going to happen?
Proinseas O Ceallaigh collected
in the parish of in Muskerry.
Two parishes, just pieces of
another two in Muskerry as well.
But just call it Muskerry.
Proinseas O Ceallaigh, also known
as Frank Kelly, collected from
34 singers in the parishes of
Ballyvaughan and Kilnamartyra.
He collected 220 songs.
And in the first half
of the 1930s, and they're
in a repository in Dublin.
Okay, but I did my MPhil in
Cork on editing those songs.
But I haven't published them
yet and I've been helped by
IT people here in the AFC.
For anyone who still lagging
behind with acronyms, that's the
American Folklife Center.
Right. This is it.
This is it. But it's not
published yet.
So in this is 220 songs that
were collected in the 1930s,
well, this is done,
but there's multiples of
this in repositories or
museums, galleries and so on
in Dublin, you've gone ahead.
Can you just go back one tick?
The woman on the right.
How many of the 220 songs?
This is an 80 year old woman
who spoke no English.
She's what's called by
linguists a monoglot.
Right. And a native
of where I'm from.
How many of the 220
songs do you think she
gave the collector
that are in here.
Somebody take a guess.
Jesus Christ.
The answer is 120.
[Laughter]
Which is still impressive.
Somebody said 220.
Okay.
>> Now we'll go to Beth.
Yeah, thanks.
>> John Fenn: Do you
want to introduce this,
or should we just
play the first clip?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
I'll introduce it. And then and
very quickly, just so this is
Elizabeth Cronin, who
Seamus Ennis, I think
justifiably described as the
Queen of Muskerry singers and
Alan Lomax collected
from this lady in 1951.
He wasn't the only person.
Lomax wasn't the only collector.
Clearly this was
a serious singer.
Collectors had called an audio
recorded her in 46--
That was Kevin Danaher,
47, Seamus Ennis.
And you'll see why Seamus Ennis
brought Lomax to her in 51.
And I think I'm delighted
to say that I'm going to let--
I know maybe just one sentence
to explain the next three things.
So this particular
song and I'm conscious
it's probably quarter to one
now or maybe close.
Anyway, this song
that she's going to--
I'll let Beth Cronin introduce.
She's talking to Alan Lomax in
1951, in her kitchen, I imagine.
In Ballymakeera and,
she's introducing
who made the song?
Who composed the song?
His name is-- I let her do it,
but after she does it, another
great singer from Muskerry,
from Cooley.
And there's a bit
of video there.
And it's again about
the same song.
And then if we have time, if you
haven't, I'll run out the door.
I'll sing it.
Just to show maybe continuity
of a living oral tradition.
And you'll see for yourself.
I don't have to walk you
through every second of it,
but look out for,
Dear Madine, sing.
He's the man with the beard.
You'll see in the video.
Talking about--
He mentions Jean.
That's Jean Ritchie, another
American folk song collector.
He talks very interestingly,
and I stop at this,
about how a singer
in this Sean-nos, Muskerry
tradition, learns their songs.
Just to give you an
idea of the dates.
Bess Cronin, 1951.
And we go straight through.
Diarmuid in the video, 1991
and then 2024, I'll sing it here.
We'll let them introduce
themselves, right, and sing
the first verse in each case,
but I'll sing the full song.
I could have said more.
[Laughter]
>> We had, of course, we used to
have lots of servants, you know,
and servants at the time.
You'd have one who was--
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Speaking in English.
Turn it up a bit.
>> So on, and maybe they'd want
to leave and another one would
come. There'd be some new
personnel was coming or going,
or a girl, cousins and friends
coming along like that
and all that, you
know, anywhere.
>> And you'd say
there was more singing
back in those times
than there is now.
>> Oh, a lot more, a lot more.
A lot more. They
have no songs now.
>> Well, do you think
really no songs or--
>> No songs, only
very, very little.
I wouldn't call them songs.
>> Well, the old music
is very beautiful.
There's no doubt it is.
>> But they are making songs.
They have songs, but I
don't think that there is.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe I'm wrong and
that the songs are alright.
But I wouldn't think so. I'd
rather hear an old manor and
old woman that I'm singing at a
wedding and listen to all they have
from 6:00 in the evening
until 11 by night
in the radio.
>> Well, since I've come to
Ireland, I can pretty well agree
with you, because
Irish songs are just.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
She's going to talk again.
>> Yes, but the priests weren't.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: It's about
the man who made the sound.
>> Fresh start again.
This man was one of them.
>> This man was fond of Woodruff,
and the priests didn't like it.
So he often took the pledge,
and I suppose, broke the pledge.
But himself from the Bruceville
road, and he didn't
like him at all then,
and they didn't like him.
But he composed a song for
himself and a little verse for
the priest in the end.
That's the way it.
♪ Níl mo shláinte ar fónamh
ó scaras leis an ól so ♪
♪ Ach casachtach agus ceo
agus achrann mór im chroí ♪
♪ ‘S gurb é deirid na mnáibh óga
gur chúngaigh suas mo scórnaigh ♪
♪ Is ná seinnfinn port ná ceol
dóibh go rincfidís dom ríl ♪
[Inaudible]
>> I haven't gave a number of
songs from this [Inaudible]
Normally if you're trying to
learn a song from somebody,
you learn it exactly
as that person sang it.
But with Bess Cronin, that's
it's practically impossible.
You couldn't, she's
impossible to imitate.
Well, in that type of thing, I
suppose you don't imitate
anyway. You put your
own version on it.
But trying to get as close
as possible to what
Elizabeth Cronin saying,
as I've heard it on tape.
So what Jean referred to
earlier as the pretty little
decorations,
they're the problem.
[Laughter]
And I suppose her style of
singing was unique in that.
There's one song which I learned
off the tape not so long ago.
It's it's known as
[Inaudible]
from the other side of the
other side of the country.
And he was [inaudible] drinking
and everything.
And he had made several
attempts to reform and to
take the pledge and
everything like that.
And the priests were
done on top of him.
And this song is described
by this on the
tape as well. She gives
a story of the song and,
sings it as well, but
I'll have a go at it.
My very poor version of Bess
Cronin's AMHRÁN PHEAD BHUÍ.
♪ Níl mo shláinte ar fónamh
ó scaras leis an ól so ♪
♪ Ach casachtach agus ceo
agus achrann mór im chroí ♪
♪ ‘S gurb é deirid na mnáibh óga
gur chúngaigh suas mo scórnaigh ♪
♪ Is ná seinnfinn
port ná ceol dóibh ♪
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Can you freeze
it? Can you leave him up there?
>> No.
>> Okay. That's fine.
[Laughing]
Rather than leave
that guy up there.
Okay. So I know we're under
pressure for time.
This is my mother's first cousin,
Diarmuidin O Suilleabain.
He died tragically in
a car accident in 1991.
He mentioned a tape that he
learned this song from a tape.
There's no doubt that tape
was an Alan Lomax tape.
I subsequently,
in 1991, I must have been
18 or something years old.
I didn't have that tape.
Yet, but I had a tape of
Diarmuidin singing it.
So I suppose this word purist
gets thrown around,
you don't admit to
using tapes, right?
And learning your songs.
But what you do in the privacy
of your own bedroom or
something, you don't have to
admit to anything there.
And so it was I just wanted
to give you plural,
an idea that, of course, the
song existed before Bess Cronin.
That's the point.
Bess Cronin.
So I'm very interested in the
composer Pead Buí Ó Loingsigh.
I think I have some,
some things in common with him, to
be honest, but he made that song.
I was very interested in it.
I didn't know as much.
Well, because I was 18,
I didn't know as much about
Bess Cronin as I did about
Diarmuidin, because he was.
I was from that family, and I met
Súilleabháin on my mother's side.
Anyway, I think I'm going to stay
sitting for this one. Right.
So had we more time,
we'd have let them
both sing the full song.
But I'm going to
take that privilege.
So it's called AMHRÁN, which
means song and PHEAD is a version
of Padraig or Patrick
and BHUÍ, Yellow.
But certain families were
known by a color, right?
Might have had to do with their
hair, if anything at all.
Just a clan of that.
And they were lynches,
right? O Loingsigh.
I believe he was born
in Ballyvourney, and
he lived just west of the town
of Combe towards Kilgarvan.
And as Bess Cronin pointed out
the temperance movement of the
or attempts of the local clergymen
backfired on him because
there's someone singing about it
in Washington today.
[Laughter]
I wish I could go through
all the words. Right.
But he really gives it to them,
especially in the last verse.
And he says in the last
verse, the last phrase,
that I'm thinking, is
there a classical reference?
Hell will be full of priests
and singers and
music makers will be
in Paradise up on top.
So this is and I think we have
to stop after that. Right.
So this is AMHRÁN PHEAD BHUÍ,
which is also known,
I've seen elsewhere referred
to as Oran and oil
the drinking song like not a song.
You know, the song about drink,
is the translation of it, right?
The drink song, not
the drinking song.
So he starts with my health
isn't well and it goes like this.
♪ Níl mo shláinte ar fónamh
ó scaras leis an ól so ♪
♪ Ach casachtach agus ceo
agus achrann mór im chroí ♪
♪ S gurb é deirid na mnáibh óga
gur chúngaigh suas mo scórnaigh ♪
♪ Is ná seinnfinn port ná ceol
dóibh go rincfidís dom ríl ♪
♪ Ach éirigh-se go ró-mhoch,
is cuir-se dhíot do bhóthar ♪
♪ Is ná hinis cuid ded ghnó
dá maireann beo ded bhuíon ♪
♪ Beidh an corc sa tiarsa romhat
ann, na gloiní líonta ar bord ann ♪
♪ Is dá gcuirfí fút an corda
go gcaithfeá briseadh tríd. ♪
♪ Agus cuir-se uait na feánna
agus éirigh go dtí an mbráthair ♪
♪ Tógfaidh sé ar láimh thú
is stopfaidh sé thú ar ól ♪
♪ Tabharfaidh sé dhuit caráiste
chun scarúint leis an áibhirseoir ♪
♪ Mar is minic leat é páirteach
nó in éineacht leat sa ród ♪
♪ Tán tú anois id stráille,
níl ór agat ná pláta ♪
♪ Níl bean agat ná páiste
ach do phíopaí lán de cheo ♪
♪ Agus tiocfaidh an bás ort
i lúba chlaí nó i mbearnain ♪
♪ Is beidh tanam-sa go
brách in Ifreann dá dhó. ♪
♪ Tá mo chroí chomh dubh le hairne
nó le gual a buailfí i gceártain ♪
♪ Ó dairíos iad á rá go
raibh Ifreann im chóir ♪
♪ An sagart is an bráthair,
an t-Easpag is an Pápa ♪
♪ Ní thógfaidís mo pháirt
muna stopfainn-se den ól ♪
♪ Ach an landlady bí  a chráigh mé
nuair a thug sí an leabhar im láthair ♪
♪ Go n-ólfainn féin a sláinte
s go suífinn síos go fóill ♪
♪ Dfhanas ar an stáir sin
go maidin lá arna mhárach ♪
♪ Is mo mheidilí is mo
chártaí dfhágas fén mbord. ♪
♪ Stadfad feasta dem dhántaibh,
ní mian liom a thuilleadh a rá acu ♪
♪ Ach go bhfuil Clanna Gael gan
fálthas is gurb amhail bheidh go fóill ♪
♪ Táid amuigh fén mbáistigh
ag grafadh agus ag tárlamh ♪
♪ Is sagairt agus bráithre
ramhar-choirp ag feoil ♪
♪ Dá n-oirfeadh ola an bháis
duit, ní chuirfí é ort láithreach ♪
♪ Gan airgead nó pláta
nó braonacha le n-ól ♪
♪ Ifreann atá lán díobh
idir shagairt agus bráithre ♪
♪ Is lucht meidilí agus cártaí
go h-ard os a gcomhair. ♪
[Speaks in foreign language]
[Applause]
>> John Fenn: Do we have
time for a few questions, Thea?
Do you think?
>> Sure.
>> John Fenn:
I'm not going anywhere.
Yeah. Thank you so much, Cormac.
And thanks to the Kluge Center
for loaning us Cormac
for a little bit today.
[Applause]
Yeah. If anyone wants to stick
around and ask a few questions,
we have a few minutes.
There's microphones in--
Thea has one.
Oh, Doug right there.
>> Thank you, sir.
Hi. Thank you. Azania.
Thank you for this
wonderful lecture.
Cormac is a colleague of mine.
I'm at the Kluge Center, and
you do work on a lot of sort of
collective memory. And I want
to sort of push you since you
started out with, like,
we are on an island.
We are our own island.
Right. And so alongside of
capoeira styles or the Uyghur
dances in western
provinces, right,
in the China mainland.
So what can you say about
this sort of daily forms of
repression, for lack of better
words that James Scott used
to sort of-- What are the singing--
It's family stories.
You mentioned that. But can
you tell a bit more about the
repressive factor and the
resilience here from your people?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Thanks for the question.
I certainly didn't feed
you that one before.
[Laughter]
Before this morning.
So you have two questions there.
I think the repression.
and also what
are the songs saying?
Is it or what are they about?
>> Some songs have probably
done the family stuff.
But to what extent is there
some resilience or against
that the big evil.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Okay. I think
I've started to articulate.
When you articulate to yourself--
Developing an idea. Right.
That it's possibly the
only part of Ireland that
was never colonized.
I believe that and even
though and I did say and,
there's enough space for
everything and everyone, right?
By definition, Sean-nos singing
is and we just don't have time
to go into. I'm glad some of
what I've been saying
spoke to that it's just a time
that is about 120 years old, right?
There's a lot of songs
older than that, right?
And what did they speak about?
The very often, of course,
the turmoil of dispossession
and oppression and,
all the other Asians with it.
I'm starting to articulate
to myself, and I knock a few
thousand words out of
it in my PhD, I'm sure.
Is that the person
who is taking or the forces,
the oppressor, the invader
could not follow you.
I mean, you know, you see
where the colors were starting,
that the map of
Ireland was going white.
Okay. That those Gaeltacht
areas are in the West and that's
not by coincidence.
Historically in the
west of the island.
That's where the Irish
language ultimately was,
I suppose, simplified, pushed.
Gaeltacht areas were also taken
over by the English invader.
But their language
could not be taken over.
And nor could their songs.
And so they either
get extinguished.
It's not like the land, the
good land first and then,
you know, around the coasts
and river valleys and stuff.
Right. But then where the
Gaeltachts are is not good land.
Okay. And where the songs
are, they can't reach.
Does that kind of address?
Yeah. Thanks for the question.
Yeah. I don't know.
>> Thank you so much.
I wanted to ask you if the
generation, generation or
generations younger
than you, are there--
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: That's a
lot. That's a lot of generation.
[Laughter]
>> Within the community,
are there younger people,
kids even, who are
learning this and going to be
carrying on the tradition
that you are carrying forward?
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Yes,
there are, I'm glad to say.
I suppose, there is
a downside to that.
But I mean, you have
to evolve, right?
What I described, you can't be
bringing kids into a pub, right?
But the pub itself is
kind of disappearing.
All the good column things
that the pub provided.
There's a lot, lot, lot
less singing in pubs than
when I was 18.
And that's, that's even in the
Gaeltacht areas. Right. Or in the--
Where you'd expect songs in
Irish anyway to be sung.
So what's replaced is--
They use the word [Inaudible].
Singing [Inaudible] right,
it's the plural for [Inaudible].
Maybe. So what they do
is they bring singers in
to teach young singers
and kids, really.
But what they're doing,
you've heard me say, but
a few times, they're I'm
struggling with it because
you're uniforming the thing.
It's not as organic.
And the only way then that
you're nearly bringing it into
an education system, right. Now,
there's a place for good stuff
in the education system,
of course, but,
it takes the organic, it takes
the free flight out of it, I think.
It's kind of conveyor belt,
but there is no other--
I'm coming to an
acknowledgement or
acceptance that in order to
have numbers, you might have
someone who break
off that conveyor belt.
We're talking about tiny
numbers here, right?
And fly themselves.
Right? I certainly had no
conveyor belt, so maybe that's why.
Well, maybe I had an advantage
of being born into a family
that had singers, right?
That were singers
that are singers.
Yes, I did.
>> John Fenn: And
we heard Bess Cronin
say at the end of the interview,
there's no singing anymore.
That was in 1951.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
Yeah.
>> John Fenn: I mean, Cormac
and I have talked about this.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: And there's
another collector on that point,
John. There was
another collector
way before digital.
or cameras or--
Yeah, well, I'll let you
figure it out yourself.
In 1911 and 1913,
An English gentleman by the
name of Martin Freeman came to
Ballyvourney, which is in
Muskerry, and collected 80 songs,
from four singers,
most of them from
the senior singer of that for,
a gentleman by the name of
Craw Coughlan or
Connie Coughlan.
The name isn't in
Ballyvourney anymore.
He was from
[Inaudible] Nazareth.
And he was saying to, you
could see where I'm going
with this. He was saying to the
collector, Martin Freeman,
it's a pity you didn't
come 20 years earlier.
They were all
singing then, right?
Yeah, sure. Right.
Because Bess Cronin is
saying the same thing.
Best part of 50 years later.
I think I think--
>> John Fenn: 70 years on,
you know, 74 years on.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: Yes,
I'm trying to think of,
but the numbers are getting
precariously small
to your question.
So what happens in,
the kind of weekend or after
school workshops that go on,
let's say, year after year.
So what can they do?
They can't create the organic,
the locus, right?
So they drive them
into competitions.
Right. And then that's
medals and trophies.
They're nearly as big as a Formula
One trophy at this stage. Right.
Bigger than the kids.
Right. Which is very exciting
if you're seven years old.
But if you're seven years old,
you know, you're not going
to be listening to me anyway.
You're not going
to be sitting here.
So, yeah, it's a cause for--
To keep an eye on
concern, I don't know, but
I've certainly, I believe, started
to be more positive about these,
initiatives because everything
is needed, really.
The numbers are
really, really small.
And competitions have
to have a part in it.
They didn't have
a part in it in my--
Which is why the quivering
voice and the stagecraft wasn't
hammered into me before
competitions, because I don't
sing on stage really.
If I can avoid it.
[Laughing]
Thanks for the question.
>> John Fenn:
And we can do one more, sir.
In the back, Doug.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
We can hear you. Yeah.
>> I try and be brave
because I'm English,
but not from the British Isles.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
All right. You're all welcome.
>> I was wondering
about the role
of the Irish language
in all of this.
And is the Irish language
being supported like it is,
for example, in Wales, in terms
of trying to bring it back?
And how does that
relate to the music?
If the kids don't understand
the Irish, how can
they relate to the music,
all that kind of thing,
I was wondering. Thank you.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha:
The numbers and--
I mean, it's a gargantuan task,
however noble it is.
Ireland currently is
anglicised linguistically.
And even the Gaeltacht
areas included.
There's an intense pressure
on Irish language speakers.
Native Irish language speakers
are those who acquire,
they're grades off, right,
you know, people who might have
their neighbors of mine, who have
no English spoken to them by their
parents at home, but who speak
Irish every bit as good as I do.
Right? Because because that is,
it's still taught by competent
teachers and the opportunity
to speak in the shop,
in the football club.
socially is there.
But there are vast parts of
Ireland that have very little
relationship with the Irish
language except in the education
system. But it doesn't mean--
And look, I'm a trained
secondary school teacher myself,
and I don't always join in the
blood sport of giving out about
secondary school teachers.
But not all of them are really
into teaching Irish, even though
there are Irish teachers.
And I'm sure that happens
in Wales and Scotland,
as well as many, many other places
around the world outside of the
British Isles and Ireland.
[Laughing]
Yeah, thanks for the question.
I'd be optimistic, and
maybe this might sound like an
afterthought. I'd
like to be optimistic.
There's a difference, I suppose.
I speak Irish to my kids.
Even though we can speak
English as well, you know, and
French as well as it happens.
But no, the default language
and the texts I write
to them from here are
in Irish and that's--
Thankfully, that's not entirely
unique, but the pressure,
and it's going back
to Arnold's question.
The pressure on the Irish
language to remain a community
language is enormous.
The Anglicizing, like so Irish
speakers in Ireland, have now to
deal with an anglicised Irish
civil structure, civil service,
everything. And we are looked
upon as the other, as you know.
Why do you want that in Irish?
Or the person who speaks Irish
isn't at work today?
This kind of thing. Right.
So if you're in a hurry
and you don't want, you're not
like someone who's looking for
a confrontation like me, maybe
you'll just ask for
the service in English.
But a lot of these
songs go back to--
So there's rebel songs, but
they're kind of ballads, right?
They're not channels.
Right?
And I don't know how much
time we have left, but,
the older, older songs are a
window into a, I suppose a song
I'm thinking of in particular
would be considered
like, maybe it's too long to
sing it now, a kind of a
national anthem in Muskerry.
It's called GILE MEAR
and it's a poet from--
I just googled it so I wouldn't
mess this up this morning.
Early 18th century.
Okay, I will, but if anyone has
to leave, like, please don't be
worried. I close my eyes, I won't
see, I won't see you leaving.
So it's called GILE MEAR
and it's okay?
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
It has [Inaudible] as well.
I'm adamant in getting this in.
It's sang by a choir that I
joined at a very young age that
was established, among others,
by Sean O Riada before I was
born, 1963 and in Cooley.
And so I would have been
learning and surrounded by
singers in that choir.
There was a church choir, but
we would sing in concerts and
socially as well. And still do.
And this song has really
been made by this choir.
And is recognizable
by English and
Irish speaking Irish people
as being from Muskerry.
And so if we are in a
situation on stage or backstage
green room situation.
It's often happened that
there's a lot of tension about
handing out the verses and
fighting over who's getting the
verses. There's only
so many verses in it.
And why didn't I get that
verse and stuff like that?
But that problem doesn't apply
today because I'm going to sing
all the verses. Okay.
[Laughter]
>> Unless John wants to join.
>> John Fenn: Yeah, I'll jump in.
>> Cormac Ó hAodha: And
I'm very glad to do that.
I'm also very grateful
to all the staff in the
American Folklife Center, in
the various divisions in the
Kluge Center, of course
who have all been very, very
good to me since I got
here and continue to be.
But other divisions,
other collections as well,
the Music Division in the
Madison building and some great
conversations that have just
started having with those
specialists and librarians
as well as the ones here.
I hope I haven't
left anybody out
other than the man, I suppose,
who has been the best
contact friend and
promoter and protector.
And I'd really like you to give
a round of applause to echo my
acknowledgement of him.
And that's John Fenn.
>> John Fenn: Thank you.
[Applause]
This is not a short song.
So but you can escape away.
I'm just taking a mental
picture of who's here. Okay.
And as I said, because
I want this to go on record,
I'll sing all the verses
because sometimes
I mightn't get even one verse,
and that can cause
a lot of trouble.
So it was by--
Sorry to come back to all the great
questions and thank you very much.
This is from a man called
Seán Clárach Mac Domhnaill,
a great Munster poet who
was born in the 1690s.
So this song predates
all those maps.
This song, we really and I
suppose it's a song of hope.
It goes back to the Jacobite
era of the change of
the English throne. Right? Right.
Not the throne, but
affecting Ireland.
And so I just explained that
the refrain, the [Inaudible]
It might explain
a good bit of it.
So the woman is singing that's a
device or that's Ireland basically.
The Ireland is the woman
in this style of poetry,
ashling poetry.
And she's hoping that her hero,
her Caesar, she says, even in
the first verse, will come back.
So it might sound kind of
counterintuitive or counter.
Making, what?
Is this a song about loss?
No, it's a song about the
potential of recovery.
And hope.
It's called GILE MEAR.
I'll just take one
drop of water.
Because it's not a short song.
And please join in, if
you like, in the chorus.
You'll figure out pretty
quickly where it is.
♪ Seal dá rabhas im
mhaighdean shéimh ♪
♪ Is anois im baintreach
chaite thréith ♪
♪ Mo chéile ag treabhadh
na dtonn go tréan ♪
♪ De bharr na gcnoc san imigéin ♪
♪ Is é mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Is é mo Chaesar, Gile Mear ♪
♪ Suan ná séan ní
bhfuaireas féin ♪
♪ Ó chuaigh i gcéin
mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Bímse buan ar buairt gach ló ♪
♪ Ag caoi go cruaidh
is ag tuar na ndeor ♪
♪ Mar scaoileadh uaim
an buachaill beo ♪
♪ Is ná ríomhtar
tuairisc uaidh, mo bhrón ♪
♪ Is é mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Is é mo Chaesar, Gile Mear ♪
♪ Suan ná séan ní
bhfuaireas féin ♪
♪ Ó chuaigh i gcéin
mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Ní labhrann cuach
go suairc ar nóin ♪
♪ Is níl guth gadhair
i gcoillte cnó ♪
♪ Ná maidin shamhraidh
i ngleanntaibh ceoigh ♪
♪ Ó dimigh uaim
an buachaill beo ♪
♪ Is é mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Is é mo Chaesar, Gile Mear ♪
♪ Suan ná séan ní
bhfuaireas féin ♪
♪ Ó chuaigh i gcéin
mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Marcach uasal uaibhreach óg ♪
♪ Gas gan ghruaim
is suairce snó ♪
♪ Glac is luaimneach,
lúth i ngleo ♪
♪ Ag teascadh an tslua
is ag tuargan treon ♪
♪ Is é mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Is é mo Chaesar, Gile Mear ♪
♪ Suan ná séan ní
bhfuaireas féin ♪
♪ Ó chuaigh i gcéin
mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Seinntear stáir
ar chlairsíbh ceoil ♪
♪ Is líontar táinte cárt ar bord ♪
♪ Le hinntinn ard
gan cháim, gan cheo ♪
♪ Chun saol is sláinte
d fháil dom leon ♪
♪ Gile mear 'sa
seal faoi chumha, ♪
♪ Is Éire go léir faoi
chlócaibh dubha ♪
♪ Suan ná séan ní
bhfuaireas féin ♪
♪ Ó chuaigh i gcéin mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Is é mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear ♪
♪ Is é mo Chaesar, Gile Mear ♪
♪ Suan ná séan ní
bhfuaireas féin ♪
♪ Ó chuaigh i gcéin
mo Ghile Mear ♪
Thanks.
[Applause]