Why didn't I find this thread when I did a search for "Mo Mary"?

The song "Maighdeanan na h-Airigh" was recently quoted by a participant in an on-line Gaelic discussion group. I wrote in to mention that this song has the same tune as "The Island Sheiling Song" and to ask whether there were Gaelic words to the latter. The response I received was that although thewords are not a translation, "Maighdeanan na h-Airigh" IS the Gaelic-language version of "The Island Sheiling Song".

According to the respondent, both sets of lyrics are found together in Marjory Kennedy-Fraser, "Songs of the Hebrides", Volume 1, published by Boosey and Hawkes about 1908. The song was collected in the isle of Barra by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser and Kenneth MacKellar. It is not clear which languagelyrics they collected, although Gaelic is still the main language of Barra and was even a century ago. The book attributes the Gaelic lyrics to Kenneth MacKellar and the English lyrics to Marjory Kennedy-Fraser. Ms Kennedy-Fraser was an arranger of songs. She adapted them for performance in genteel circles. She wasn't worried about keeping her "translations" true tothe original!

In the case of this song, it seems likely that the collectors had only a fragment of the original song and made up both Gaelic and English lyrics on that fragile basis.