Shane MacGowan's 'Granuille' question

Subject: Shane MacGowan's 'Granuille' question
From: GUEST,Kelmorien
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 01:43 PM

Hello all.
On what is, I believe, his latest recording, Across the Broad Atlantic, Shane MacGowan sings a traditional song called "Granuaille" about the 16th c. Irish heroine. Although I love shane's presentation of the piece, I am unable to understand what he is saying in the first few lines because he's bombed. The first, line is especailly unclear, and the second half-intelligable, and after that I can understand everything well enough. I've searched about online, and found several different versions of the lyrics, but they all differ significantly from Shane's rendition.

If anyone has the CD I'd welcome any thoughts.

Many thanks!

Kelmorien

Subject: RE: Shane MacGowan's 'Granuille' question
From: Nerd
Date: 17 Dec 04 - 02:22 PM

If it's really about the 16th century Granuaile then I doubt very much this is really a traditional song. Some traditional songs personify Ireland itself as "Granuaile," such as this one. But songs actually about her are likely to be taken from Shaun Davey/Rita Connolly oratorio.

This website suggests Shane's song is probably a version of the one I linked to above, which is not at all about the real Granuaile (since Brian Boru lived 400 years before she did!)