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Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info

25 May 98 - 06:15 PM (#29267)
Subject: Lyr Add: AR BHRUACH NA LAOI
From: Antaine

Somebody was enquiring a while back about Ar Bhruach na Laoi. If it was you I apologise profusely as I gave you completely the wrong information. (I hadn't heard it at the time and I was guessing.) However I recently heard it on the radio (that is, if this is the one you mean!) with Liam Ó Maonlaí singing and Liam Ó Floinn playing the pipes. I found a text under the name "Ar Bhruach na Laoi" in a book called "Binneas thar Meon 1" (A Collection of songs and airs made by Liam de Noraidh in East Munster, Edited by Dáithí Ó hÓgáin, Published by Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann (1994), University College Dublin, ISBN 0 906426 154). The text is in Irish as you might expect and it includes the music in staff notation and also includes a translation. (Only one verse.)

Here it is as it appears in the above book :

AR BHRUACH NA LAOI
Ar bhruach na Laoi ins an oíche casadh mé
Gan bhuairt ar m'aigne, ba dhóigh liom féin,
Nach gur chuireadh as an tslí mé le díth mo mhearbhaill
I gcuanta daingeana nárbh fhearrde mé.
Ní fheiceoinn an spéir le haon-neart mo mhearbhaill;
Is dá nochtfadh an ré cá ndéanfainn amharc air?
Dé' mhaith a bhí agam glaoch ná d'aoinne eile freagairt dom
Le fuaim gach caise agus gártha géim.
Translation as given :
On the banks of the Lee
On the banks of the Lee I chanced to be at night, and I was thinking that I had no worry on my mind except that I was sent astray by my inflicting dizziness to deep recesses which were not good for me. I couldn't see the sky due to the great intensity of my dizziness. And if the moon appeared where could I look upon it? What good was it for me to call out or for anybody else to answer me, because of the noise of every current and the roaring outcry.

I hope this is the right one now. Ah but sure it was worth finding out about John Lyons anyway wasn't it??? If you need the staff notation give me your address and I'll send it to you.
Go n-éirí leat,
Antaine

26 May 98 - 03:44 PM (#29348)
Subject: RE: Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info
From:

aa

27 May 98 - 03:41 PM (#29459)
Subject: RE: Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info
From:

Bringing to top of thread to reach Piper

28 May 98 - 07:20 PM (#29574)
Subject: RE: Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info
From:

Bringing to top of thread to reach Piper

30 May 98 - 07:18 AM (#29690)
Subject: RE: Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info
From: Piper

Hey thanks a million ... please ignore the last note about me not being able to find the thread... I did... purely by accident! I really appreciate your efforts and yes, I'd love the notation... piper@mcmail.com thanks again. Slan go foill - as we learning speaker of Irish say!

17 Apr 08 - 05:26 PM (#2318677)
Subject: RE: Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info
From: Thompson

Reviving this long-sleeping thread; I'm just listening to O Maonlai's singing of it, and he's talking about "Pallas no Sile" - I assume in the original this was "Pallas Athene".

20 Feb 11 - 11:32 AM (#3099105)
Subject: RE: Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info
From: GUEST,Steve near Chicago

This song, as sung by Liam a Maonaia and performed by Liam O'Flynn, has stayed with me for many years. Few pieces of music I know are more moving. Now the language of your translation (I read no Irish) is fascinating. But I'm puzzled, because the liner notes of the CD tell me this song is an Aisling by genre, a dream vision of Ireland as a fair lady, written and sung as a way of perpetuating the memory of the nation at a time of oppression (by the English, I'm ashamed to say, being English by extraction). And today I can't find my CD, but as I recall, the notes say that Ar Bhruach commemorates departure and banishment for life from Ireland to France of the Irish army of many thousands after its final rout by the English around 1720 or so.

Someone who can get their hands onf O'Flynn's wonderful CD may be able to confirm or correct my memory. But I write all this only because I wish I would see the connection between these wonderous lyrics you give and the idea of aisling as expressed on the CD. Perhaps I my country had succombed to oppression I'd be feeling a little dizzy too.

20 Feb 11 - 11:37 AM (#3099112)
Subject: RE: Ar Bhruach na Laoi I gave you the wrong info
From: GUEST,This link sheds some light on question, abov

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3MR2N5FgDY&feature=youtube_gdata

See the masts!