I have noticed once that it was written like "siúbhail" and than the first "i" was without spot on top. But as we see it is written in many different forms and spellings. I have sung the song also in my own ensemble, about 10 years ago.

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Siúbhail, siúbhail, siúbhail a rúin,
siúbhail go sochair agus siúbhail go ciúin.
Siúbhail go doras agus éaluigh liom,
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnin slán.

This was the written text
given on reply by the Cecil Sharp House
and the word "siúbhail"should be pronounced as (by approach)"showill" - it was explained to me that it meant "to set out with resolteness", for the song was written at the time of the Wild Geese around the year 1691.
(will be followed)

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first my excuse me for mistaking the spelling here above - it must be "resoluteness"
The Irish army was pushed in the year 1691 (and I believe it was by Cromwell) to combat on the continent in France.
All the Irish soldiers/boys were sent to France.
And if one refused to go, the English authorities condemned him by hanging him.
The lyrics of the song "Siúbhail a Rúin" are about the complaining and the pain that a young spinning woman
feels when she is at work at the spinning wheel.
As we know the spinning work and the spinning wheel were in earlier days
strong symbolic attributes for women in general to have a powerful influence on the Fate of Man.
"Dying the petticoat red" is the obsolete symbolism for "swearing fidelity to the one you love".
It is also said to me that the song should be structurely performed as a going around and around spinning wheel.
Thanks, Phons Bakx (Holland)

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