The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #155986   Message #4129797
Posted By: Felipa
23-Dec-21 - 05:02 PM
Thread Name: Origins:Translating Old English: Cherry Tree Carol
Subject: RE: Origins:Translating Old English: Cherry Tree Carol
I read that some verses of the Cherry Tree Carol have been found in Irish and in Scottish Gaelic. I'd appreciate help in finding these verses. The only titles or lines I have to search for are "Muire agus Naomh Ioseph,". Relevant books would be Douglas Hyde, "Religious Songs of Connacht" and A. Carmichael "Carmina Gadelica". Possibly Peter Kennedy's collection as he collected from singer Thomas Moran, Co Leitrim, who had a version of the Cherry Tree Carol and sang both in English and in Irish (Gaelic).
see http://www.bluegrassmessengers.com/the-cherry-tree-carol--macsweeney-1918.aspx reprint of
"The Cherry-Tree Carol"
by Joseph J. MacSweeney
Folklore, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Mar. 30, 1918), pp. 83-84

also mentioned by "Liberty Boy" in a Mudcat thread "Origins: Child Ballads in Ireland": "In his book “Narrative Singing in Ireland” published in 1993 Hugh Shields says “Only two ballads seem to have gone into Irish retaining something of the ballad character”. He then names them as “Cá rabhais ar Feadh an Lae uaim” a version of Lord Randal (Child 12) collected in Roscommon in 1905 and “Muire agus Naomh Ioseph” The Cherry Tree Carol (Child 54) collected in 1897 also in Roscommon. Both edited by Douglas Hyde."
Origins: Child Ballads in Ireland