cranberry isles

Subject: cranberry isles
From:
Date: 28 Mar 03 - 08:44 PM

Lyrics for an old gaelic song? "I wish I were in the cranberry isles, where the diamonds are often seen...." I would also like to know anything about this song.

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: mg
Date: 28 Mar 03 - 08:47 PM

me too. I work for a cranberry research station. mg

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Mar 03 - 08:38 AM

Well, there's a set of Cranberry Isles off the coast of Maine which was well known as a base for fishing and trading schooners, and folksongs associated with such. I'll check and see if that song was one they sang.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Mar 03 - 02:22 PM

Well, there is one song from our Cranberry Isles which may have been based on the one you're interested in but it's all now a local story with not a diamond to be seen (from Minstrelsy of Maine):

There was a wealth Irishman
On Cranberry Isles did dwell,
He had a handsome daughter,
Old Joe he loved her well.

Chorus:

And sing ti-re-um, sing tu-re-um,
Sing ti-ro-edle-o-a.

With many more verses about an older man marrying a much younger woman.

Not very helpful, I'm afraid.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: GUEST,mpf
Date: 29 Mar 03 - 04:22 PM

Here are the words:

I wish I were in the cranberry isles, where the diamonds are often seen.
I'd sit her doon beside of me and dress her in a goon o' green
(gaelic chorus that I know only by sound)

Her hair was like the thr'ads of gold, her beauty wove' on nature's loom.
Her face was like the morning sun, and wi'out her I am undone.
(Chorus)

So I know these two verses and the melody, but the Gaelic I know only by the sounds --- from a childhood lullaby as remembered by my mother from her Gaelic-speaking nurse (circa 1900).

I would love to know about this song: are there more verses? Where is it from? Were the Isles actually some other Isles, and my mother only remembered "cranberry"? Or was this a Nova Scotia Scottish song and these are theMaine Cranberry Isles?

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: mg
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 12:59 AM

cranberries are native to North America...but who knows? mg

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 07:32 AM

If my mother somehow "heard" cranberry, when the isles of the song were actually other isles, does anyone recognize the lyrics as belonging to some other "isles"? The phrase "her face was like the morning sun, and without her, I am undone" seems as if someone might recognize it?

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 02:24 PM

The European cranberry, Oxycoccus, pink flowers and red berries, grows in Britain. Another related plant, but usually called "cowberry," also grows in Great Britain.
Then there is the bush cranberry, Viburnum opulus, which grows both in Europe and North America.

The bog cranberry, Oxycoccus macrocarpus, which shows up with turkey at Thanksgiving, is North American, but there is no reason to equate the Cranberry Isles of the song to this plant.

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: GUEST,mpf
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 04:48 PM

Thankyou very much for this posting.

Can anyone tell me if there would be anyplace in Scotland or elsewhere in Britain that would be called the Cranberry Isles?
I always assumed that the Scottish nurse was singing A Scottish Gaelic song -- so this posting means a lot to me.

Subject: RE: cranberry isles
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Mar 03 - 05:27 PM

Looks like we're closing in!

Charley Noble