A forgotten track from a forgotten album of many moons ago!
I first heard this song on a radio programme in the early 1970s performed by a group of singers from Connemara during an oíche airneáil (social evening). The verses were taken up by various singers while the whole company joined in the chorus singing in unison. Songs of this kind belong to the medieval carole or round–dance tradition (a combination of singing and dancing) which the Normans were supposed to have brought into Ireland. Although the practice of dancing to them died out, songs continued to be made in the same mould as the carole (not to be confused with the much later Christmas Carol) for centuries afterwards.
Sive, the girl in the song, is being teased by the young men who, in a playful kind of way, discuss her dowry, or lack of it. Other suitors deliberate on their own wonderful skills, such as dancing, or ploughing. She’s not impressed…. until a fisherman offers to bring her to Galway City in his boat. The jig-tune which weaves its way through the song is another Connemara air – Cailleach an Airgid (The Hag with the Money).
The lightness of the musical arrangement was intended to be the antidote to the rather heavy folk-song arrangements of the 1970s & 80s.
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” (Leonard Cohen)
Composed by Trad. Arr. Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh
Composed: 1988
Musicians
Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh, lead vocals & harmony vocals; guitar & whistle,
Greg Scanlon, harmony vocals,
Colum Sands, pipe-drone.
Lyrics for Sadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala (Sive O’Brannelly)
Ó cailín beag óg mé, cailín beag macánta,
Nár chuala sibh trácht ar Shadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala,
Curfá:
Óra, ‘Shadhbh, ‘s a Shadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala,
A chuisle ‘s a stóirín, éal’ ‘gus imi’ liom.
Máistir báid mhóir mé ‘dhul ród na Gaillimhe,
D’fhliuchfainn trí fhód ‘s ní thógfainn aon fharraige,
Ó máistir báid mhóir mé is damhsóir cumasach,
Fear sluaiste is láí ar dhá cheann an iomaire.
Máistir báid mhóir go deo ní ghlacfad-sa
Nuair a thaganns an chóir is iondúil nach bhfanann sé.
Ní iarrfainn de spré le Sadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala
Ach Bail’ Inis Gé ‘s cead éalú ar choiníní.
Ní thógfainn go deo thú mur’ dté tú i dtrioblóid,
Gunna mór ‘fháil ‘s cead éalú ar choiníní.
Tá gúna breá nua ag Sadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala,
Cóitín beag donn gan ghabhal gan mhuinchille.
Nuair a thaganns lá breá is an ghaoth ón fharraige
Bhéarfa mé Sadhbh liom go Cuan na Gaillimhe.
Curfá:
Óra, ‘Shadhbh, ‘s a Shadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala
A chuisle ‘s a stóirín, éal’ ‘gus imi’ liom.
Óra, ‘Shadhbh, ‘s a Shadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala
A chuisle ‘s a stóirín, éal’ ‘gus imi’ liom.
Óra, ‘Shadhbh, ‘s a Shadhbh Ní Bhruinngheala
Comhairle do mháithrín, éal’ ‘gus imi’ liom.