Joanie Madden, Sir James Galway and Will Millar (Irish Rovers) all have a distinctive approach to this air by Sean O’Riada, founder of The Chieftains. I’m sure a lot of others do too. Does anyone have any lyrics for this so I can produce my own musical interpretation of the piece? At the moment I’m treating it like a lament (dirge?), in a variety of keys, all of which sound good to me. But maybe that’s not appropriate? So, lyrics (or the air’s background) anyone?
Thanks.
Google on “Mná na h-Éireann” and you shouldn’t have any trouble finding them.
Feadoggie
Yeah, it’s easily googleable with the Gaelic spelling.
Add “lyrics” to the search term and you get tons.
Here’s Sinead O’Conner’s version:
http://lyricwiki.org/Sinéad_O’Connor:Mna_Na_H_Éireann
Are you planning on singing it or using the lyrics to
help inform your instrumental sensibilities for it? Just
curious.
Are you planning on singing it or using the lyrics to
help inform your instrumental sensibilities for it? Just
curious.[/quote]
Yes, I’m planning on “informing my instrumental sensibilities” as I play the piece.
Doing that with Danny Boy, for instance, I discovered this much smirked at piece is in fact one of the best examples of pure poetry I’ve come across in a lifetime of reading and writing verse. Playing Danny Boy without absorbing and expressing the lyrics would be to miss the true richness of the whistle or flute with this piece, IMHO.
Thanks for the tip about the lyrics of WOI.
I found the lyric thanks. But can anyone give me an English translation? Even a rough one would do.
Thanks.
This one has a rough English translation at the bottom.
http://www.celtic-lyrics.com/forum/index.php?autocom=tclc&code=lyrics&id=609
Playing Danny Boy without absorbing and expressing the lyrics would be to miss the true richness of the whistle or flute with this piece, IMHO.
To play Danny Boy w/o note of the lyrics would be to
play the tune it is based on, Londonderry Aire.
Which is fine in and of itself.
Thanx Fearfaoin. I now have the lyric in English, though it looks much shorter than the Irish version.
Now I need an explanation of any significant meaning hidden in the lyric, if there is any. What are Sarah Brightman and Sinead O’Connor getting so doleful about when they sing it?
My first impression is that Will Millar got nearer to expressing the lightheartedness of the pub laddie’s cheerful philandering than I did playing it as a lament … And maybe Sir James Galway and Joannie Madden just played the tune as they saw it, without any reference whatsoever to the lyric …
I’d like to know because I wouldn’t want to be insensitive to what might turn out to be of profound significance to Irish sensibilities.
Thanks again.
Wow. That’s a really good question.
Maybe they don’t speak Gaelic?
From my experience, it’s best to skip the lyrics.
The melody itself is (imho) one of the most beautiful and most haunting of all i have ever played, or heard. And to be honest, i think that i’ll never do right to it. But every time i play it, i try to put all my emotions towards Erin (and it’s women) into it. I guess that emotion is the fuel that drives me towards better and better interpretations of the melody.
I have read the “official” lyrics in English and they are laughable, to say the least. Sinnead’s version is much more acceptable, but only because i cannon understand her.
It actually reminds me of the time i first heard “Buena Vista Social Club”. The beauty of the songs haunted me; that is, untill i read the translation.
Then i decided to stick to the melodies, rather than to try and find meaning in the lyrics at any price. 
Maybe a compromise is to check the lyrics and if they don’t fit the melody, just play the melody?
After this, if I hear someone singing something profoundly mystical and soulful in Gaelic I’ll wonder if they’re actually banging on about, “curing his/her pain in an ale house down the road …”
Then it strikes me that you’re missing an important point.
Read up on Irish sean nós singing tradition and its influence on the instrumental performance style of slow airs, and you’ll have a better idea of why keithsandra is asking about the lyrics. The words matter.
It’s always fine and fun to make up your own emotions and use your imagination. But then you’re playing DM (Dain Music) and not ITM. Finding the right balance between the two is part of the challenge …
BTW, that translation (verses 1, 2 and last) that’s floating around the net is by Michael Davitt, one of the heroes of Irish independence. The style is Victorian, typical of the time. But I wonder why you find it laughable? If you don’t read Irish, how do you know?
If not a few.
I would humbly suggest, keithsandra, that you read up on Peadar Ó Doirnín, who wrote the poem on which the piece is based, then on Seán Ó Riada, the composer and a little bit about what the cultural climate of Ireland was in the 60’s. You can get a very brief overview of things here, for example.
http://www.katebushnews.com/mna.htm
While not a particularly authoritative source, you should be able to start your investigation from there.
Oh, and the fact that the poem was written “as gaeilge” is not insignificant.
Best!
Feadoggie
Wonderful. You don’t have to be humble Feadoggie, this is just what I’m looking for. Thank you.
MTGuru, I agree with you about the importance of lyrics. They’re one of the clues to the composer’s feelings and intentions, what she/he was trying to say or have us feel or do, a soul reaching out to us all in a way unique to musicians, by music! The flute and whistle are magical (fey?) in being able to do this most movingly, IMHO. I told a stoic friend of mine recently the piece I was going to play was about the women’s lament for their dead. As a four year old I’d witnessed my Mother’s terrifying animal like howl when she was told of her oldest son’s death in an RAF plane crash while on duty in the RAF in the 40’s. She screamed and hammered at the gates of hell and nothing was the same after that. But I didn’t tell my friend about that, then or now, I just played Inisheer the way I feel the women feel in their lament for all the men … When I’d finished there was silence and my friend, also a whistle player, looked stunned, tears in his eyes. I think it’s important to know what we’re playing. It’s why I play. The rest is just sound.
I understand. Thanks again. As a Brit., “Women of Ireland” might not be the place to go … We’ll see.
All the best right back at yer … 
Wow. This song is certainly more interesting than I thought at first.
Yes, you’re right. And the English translation on that page is
probably much better. This seems important, given the Gaelge:
“And an ugly, swarthy man with no English has a beautiful girl”
Sandy Jasper, the whistlemaker, has recorded a version of Women of Ireland but I don’t know how to download it to CnF. She might be able to, if you Google her at Elfsong. It’s a haunting version that might make your neck hairs tingle …