https://www.folktrax-archive.org/menus/cassprogs/003irishgaelic.htm TX-003 SONGS IN IRISH GAELIC

HUDIE DEVANEY, CONAL O DONNELL & OTHERS

A collection of songs in Irish mainly from Donegal recorded by Peter Kennedy, Sean O Boyle & Noel Hamilton. All the songs are introduced & explained in English by Hudie Devaney, Conal O Donnell and Sheila Gallagher from Gweedore. These are the original recordings of songs #25-48 in FOLKSONGS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND, edited by Peter Kennedy BRID OG NI MHAILLE - The Shamrock Feb 1872 - HARDEBECK 1939 Govnmt Publ Dublin #M-103 - KENNEDY FSBI 1975 #27 O Donnell - Tune used for THE BLACKBIRD OF AVONDALE -- Hudie DEVANEY rec by Peter Kennedy, Ranafast, Co Donegal 1953: BBC 19970 with talk bef/ SAYDISC CD SDL 411 1995 "Traditional Songs of Ireland" - Conal O'DONNELL rec by Peter Kennedy London 1962: FOLKTRAX 003 - O BOYLE Family: CEOLTA GAEL OSS-2 1971 - Mary O'HARA (voc/ harp): DECCA GES-1095 1973

Conal O'Donnell tells that a friend of his, Owen O'Donnell, happened to be a Gaelic teacher in County Mayo and took a fancy to this song, and brought it back to Donegal where it has become very popular. It is the oft-repeated story of the young man who has lost his love to another. He bemoans her marriage, and laments his own forthcoming one. This girl left him in his pain. 1 would say that he took it very bad when he didn't succeed in getting her. He tells about the change that took place in himself - CONAL O'DONNELL.

There's one verse in this song where he says: 'There is nothing more beautiful than the moon over the sea or the white blossom, and my love is like that with her golden tresses and her honey-mouth that has never deceived anybody' - HUDIE DEVANEY.

NOTE: Meenawanne = Min a'Bainne. 'Min' means a piece of flat ground on the mountainside that was good for grazing milk-cows. 'Chib' in Verse 3, line 4, is the sour grass which grows on the mountains. The old people could tell from the teeth of the cattle when they had been grazing on it for too long.

[my note: O Malley is a Mayo surname, but the placenames in the song indicate a connection with southeast Ulster]