I hope someone on this forum can help me get a translation of Cailleach an Airgid, The Hag with the Money.Thank you all.
Try a search of 'Si Do Mhamo I which translates to She’s Your Granny.
I don’t feel like typing it out right now. If you have a problem let me know.
This is a song sung at the wedding of the couple mentioned in the last line of the last verse. It’s teasing the newlyweds.
I read somewhere that it was sung at Joe Heaney’s grandmother’s wedding or some such relation.
There seem to be a few versions of the lyrics, so obviously you will run into a few different translations. Here is the version I have to hand:
Chorus
She’s your granny, (3x)
The old woman with the money.
She’s your granny, she’s from Carna,
And she would put coaches on the Coast Road.
-
If you were you to see the “steam”
going West to Tony Linn,
And the wheels going round,
from the hindquarters,
She would turn the helm
nine times behind her,
And they wouldn’t keep up with
the old woman with the money. -
Do you think she would marry, (3x)
the old woman with the money?
I know she wouldn’t marry,
I know she wouldn’t marry,
Because he’s too young
and he would drink away the money. -
It’s a short while until they marry, (3x)
the couple from this town.
It’s a short while until they marry.
It’s a short while until they marry,
Big John James and Mary Casey.
I thank those who have replied and would have spared them the effort if I had known the number of versions that do exist. My Irish is school Irish and rusty and I am not even capable of following the words as they are sung and so I am asking if anyone knows where I can get both a transcripton and a translation of
Cailleach an Airgid sung by Dara Ban Mac Donnchadha on the tape An Meall Mor produced by Clo-Iar Chonnachta in Connemara in 1987.
If so I would be most grateful.
John S