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I didn’t know Clannad personally before 1976 but  knew and liked their music.  Cathal Póirtéir knew them.  As we sang it on the little stage in Leo’s that night, four heads appeared from the door of the side room. It was Clannad. They loved the song.

For a week or two afterwards notes were sent up to  Coláiste Bhríde along the lines of “When’s Seoirse coming down again? We want to hear that song.” They needed a big production track to open their new album. “Dúamán” was a good candidate. I gave it to them of course.

They were so taken by it that they called their album Dúlamán. The group was photographed on the shore for the LP cover with a round table set for dinner – dúlamán seaweed, of course! The candlestick sported three candles indicating that this was their third album. Very cool indeed.

The rest is history.

But does everyone know the real history?

Composed by Trad. Arr Clannad

Composed: 1976

Musicians

Clannad

I understand this was a commission from Telecom Éireann. Although I have a profile, of sorts, as an Irish musician with a fairly substantial catalogue of recordings, I hardly know anyone in Dónal Lunny’s band “Coolfin and Friends” ….except one of the singers: Aoife Carbin whom I used to teach. I don’t think Aoife was with them for very long and when she was in the studio singing this song I’m sure she didn’t know that her old art teacher was the original Dúlamán man!

I had met Dónal a couple of times because Gael-Linn had asked him to produce my first album, Slán agus Beannacht, but I went for another deal entirely and didn’t meet up with him again. This lively and highly entertaining take on my old song has Dónal’s fingerprints all over it. He is an excellent producer and arranger. Among the “Friends” here is the well-known sean-nós singer Tomás Mac Eoin who had also worked with the Waterboys.

Composed by Trad Arr Dónal Lunny

Composed: 1996

Musicians

Dónal Lunny, Coolfin & Friends,
Aoife Carbin, soloist.

I believe I heard Mr. McGlynn once describing this setting as “pastiche”. However, it is a very skillful vocal
arrangement and very tightly performed. And it comes with a newly-composed chorus! Wonderful piece! His unique way with voices here has spawned a whole host of imitators. Surf the internet sometime and you’ll see what I mean.

Composed by Trad., Arr Michael McGlynn

Composed: 1995

Musicians

Anúna
Director Michael McGlynn

Lyrics for The Story of Dúlamán: 5. The Anúna Choral Version

I tried in vain to track down this band called “Lovely Thunder”.  Rónán Mac Aoidh Bhuí played this track on his radio show in the 1990s when he was presenting programmes in the Dublin studios of RTÉ. I managed to capture it on cassette (hence the hiss). The band may have called it something else but it is definitely my collected/discovered version from 1975. Another ambient band did something similar – Hyper (Borea), an Irish outfit fronted by the vivacious Una O’Boyle.

Composed by Trad. original adapted by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh

Composed: 1990s?

Musicians

Lovely Thunder?

I had heard about An Píobaire Mór from West Donegal. This was Tarlach Mac Suibhne who was supposed to have played variations on “Dúlamán na Binne Buí” on the uilleann pipes at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. At a session in Hiúdaí Beag’s in Gweedore one evening I asked the late Francie Mooney (Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh’s father) if he could play that tune on the fiddle. He hesitated and then came up with what sounded like a song-air – no variations, though. I told him that the fiddle maestro of the Rosses, Néillidh Boyle, used to play the variations in the 1930s. Francie said he was unaware of this and had never heard them played anywhere.

Mary Bergin, the doyenne of the tin-whistle, has recorded these variations on a CD. Where she got them from I don’t know – maybe from an old 78rpm of Néillidh’s who made studio recordings while in America. Behind these variations a song lay hidden. Was it the same song as Máire Bean Uí Arbhasaigh’s?

Mary threw in a snatch of “The Shaskeen Reel” into the mix for good measure (or was that Néillidh Boyle’s idea?).

The mystery is now solved, having now (2020) found that I already owed the box-set of Néillidh’ complete recordings (I hadn’t got round to listening to them yet). This was released in 2010.  I can see now where Mary got the idea. On the first disc are selections of short pieces one of which is “Dúlamán na Binne Buí”// highland (42 seconds’ worth) and further on is another fragment called “Óró a Stór a Ghrá” // highland (43 seconds’ worth) which is similar to the aforementioned “Shaskeen Reel” but also a perfect companion piece to  the “Dúlamán” tune. The first  tune segues seamlessly into the other. If that isn’t what Tarlach Mac Suibhne played in 1893, I don’t know what else could be. These fragments were recorded by Seamus Ennis in 1945. Well done Mary Bergin!

Composed by Trad., Arr Mary Bergin

Composed: 1992

Musicians

Mary Bergin, tin-whistle,
Alec Finn, bouzouki,
Johnny McDonagh, bodhrán,
Johnny Campbell, bass guitar.

"Mary Begin - feadóga stáin" (Gael-Linn, 1992))

Another version of the song, with melody (sort of) composed by me this time, appears on my Dúlamán a’ tSléibhe album. My band at the time was also called Dúlamán and we were toying with the idea of calling the new song “Dúlamán – The Revenge” – but settled in the end for the more poetically alliterative “Dúlamán na Binne Buí”.

Mary Bergin, the doyenne of the tin-whistle, has recorded “Dúlamán na Binne Buí” variations on a CD.  Behind these variations a song lies hidden. Was it the same song as Máire Bean Uí Arbhasaigh’s?

To fit words to an instrumental rendering proved a very daunting task. In the end, I had to tweak a new melody out of it.

I have kept to the theme of coats, hats, leggings and footwear in my editing of the verses – just to give the song a stronger focus. The Dúlamán men, remember, were deadly dressers; they were the “spivs” and travelling salesmen of old, arriving in town in great colour and splendour, charming all the women and selling their seaweed to all and sundry.  Not every mother would have approved, of course.

Composed by Trad. arranged and adapted by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh

Composed: 2002

Musicians

Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh, lead vocals, harmony vocals, guitar.
Aodh Mac Ruairí, lead vocals, harmony vocals,
Heather Innes, vocal harmonies,
Mike Cosgrave, keyboards, piano accordion.

Lyrics for The Story of Dúlamán: 8. Tweaking a New Version (The Dúlamán Band)

With up to ten versions of the song now available on commercial discs, who would have thought there was a need for another one. And yet, in 2019 another version appeared. (I get no credit on these recent discs as the guy who started it all.) Clearly attracted to the song, and influenced by some of the other available versions, the director of The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin, Desmond Earley, rolled up his sleeves one day and produced an arrangement for his choir. He, like Clannad, thought enough of it to place it as the opening track on their album “Perpetual Twilight”.

It’s a good version but I think this song is better suited to the Ulster dialect of Irish. While I am happy to hear young students singing in Irish the soloist here lacks the flow and  phrasing of a native Irish speaker. People can be tutored to adapt to new sonorities. But that’s just me being a bit purist!

Composed by Trad., Arr Desmond Earley

Composed: 2019

Musicians

The Choral Scholars of University College Dublin,
Director Desmond Earley.

Beautiful live version here in David Downes’ rich orchestral treatment, augmented by traditional instruments, choirs and solo singers. It captures well the never-lagging appeal the song has had on singers, arrangers and audiences alike.

I hear my “mistake” in all of these arrangements, but wasn’t it a good mistake?

Composed by Trad. Arr. David Downes

Composed: 2016

Musicians

Celtic Woman Ensemble

Another version of  Dúlamán, with somewhat similar lyrics and a slightly different tune and metre (akin to Albert Fry’s take), was  recorded by the band Altán on their Island Angel CD in 1993.  This version of the song is described in the sleeve notes as “a children’s nonsense song.”  It was sourced first from Clann Uí Churráin (Na Joe Jacks) of Machaire Gathláin, Gaoth Dobhair.

Composed by Trad, Arr. Altan

Composed: 1993

Musicians

Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (vocals and fiddle),
Frankie Kennedy (flute/low whistle and backing vocals),
Mark Kelly (guitars and backing vocals),
Ciaran Curran (bouzouki), Ciaran Tourish (fiddle, whistle and backing vocals),
Dáithi Sproule (guitar and backing vocals),
Steve Cooney (bass),
Anna Ní Mhaonaigh (backing vocals). 

Lyrics for The Story of Dúlamán: 11. The Altán Version

Albert Fry, the Belfast Troubadour, recorded a version in 1969 (the first commercial recording of the song) with just himself and guitar. Nothing on the LP indicates the source but Albert often got his songs from singers in Ranafast. It has a slightly different tune and metre from my own version and the words are quite different here and there.

Composed by Trad., arr Albert Fry

Composed: 1969

Musicians

Albert Fry, voice and guitar

Lyrics for The Story of Dúlamán: 12. Dúlamán na Beinne Buí (Albert Fry)