The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2717   Message #12820
Posted By: Kevin McCormick
22-Sep-97 - 12:03 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Mo Ghile Mear (from Sting/Chieftains)
Subject: Lyr Add: MO GHILE MEAR (In English)
There are several artists who have rendered Mo Ghile Mear - I looked for the English translation and found one at DEIRFLYN@MACOLLAMH.UCD.IE

This is a Jacobite song in which Ireland is depicted as a woman lamenting her love, Prince Charles Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) who is far away. There is a more complete version in Filíocht na nGael, ed. P Ó Canainn, 1940. Written by Seán Clárach Mac Domhnaill.

Once I was a gentle maiden
Now I'm a feeble worn widow
My spouse boldly ploughing the waves
Over the hills and far away.

Refrain :
He is my hero my Gile Mear
He is my Caesar my Gile Mear
Sleep or happiness I have not
Since my Gile Mear has gone away.

I am in grief each day
Crying lamentable and weeping sore
Since my lively boy was sent away
And sadly no word of him is known.

Refrain

There is no pleasure in the sweetest midday cuckoo
The finest of the nobility have little sport
The poets and scholars are troubled and in sorrow
Since my lively boy has left me.

Refrain