1.
The Lambs on the Greenhills
I’ve been singing with The Chieftains for eight years now and Paddy
Moloney of The Chieftains has always wanted me to sing this. They have recorded it with EmmyLou Harris. It’s a beautiful song about unrequited love. Others who have recorded this song include The
Johnsons and I believe they got it from Colm O Lochlainn’s ‘Irish Street
Ballads’. O Lochlainn says it came from a Mrs Reddin of Dublin in
1915 and that it was published in Padraic Collum’s ‘Broadsheet
Ballads’. It was widely popular with country singers in England under the titles ‘The Week before Easter’ and ‘The False Bride’. The air the song is written for is known as Neil Gow’s Lament (for the Death of his
second wife) so I am not surprised I was drawn to sing it, Neil Gow being a fellow Scot. I think the ‘second wife’ the tune is for, was actually Neil’s fiddle.
2.
Thig am bata (The boat will come)
Also known as ‘A bhean eudaich (The jealous woman)' this is the song of two women. One was so jealous of the other that she drowned her.
Here the drowned woman tells her tragic story; this story is much the same in Scotland and in Ireland. It is said the woman who drowned was a married woman with young children. The jealous woman (a'
bhean eudach/iadach) was either a neighbour or a servant of the married woman. They were out on the strand at low tide gathering seaweed and shellfish. They sat down to rest and the jealous woman combed the other woman's hair. The married woman fell asleep, the jealous woman entangled her hair with the seaweed, and when the tide came in, the married woman was trapped. She sang this song, and it is said that the jealous woman got away with her crime and took the other woman's place, until one day the husband overheard

her singing the drowned woman's song as a lullaby to the baby.
You can read a good rendition of the song – in Gaelic with full English translation - in Margaret Fay Shaw’s, "Songs of South Uist", which was reprinted in 1999. Shaw also includes sheet music, lyrics and translation of the song. I first heard this song sung by Anne Martin of
Uig in Skye and another version by Mary Smith of Stornoway, Lewis.
3.
Carrickfergus
Although this is a very well-known Irish song the origins of it are unclear. There is an Irish (Gaeilge) song which was sung by Sean
O'Riada "Do bhí bean uasal" which uses the same melody but the lyric is unrelated to the English version of the song. There are even macaronic versions of this song. Some attribute the English version in part to Dominic Behan who claims he collected it from the actor Peter
O’Toole. O’Toole seemingly heard it being sung when he was a youngster spending much time in Kerry which may be why it is sometimes referred to as The Kerry Boatman. I could go on at length such is the confusion as to where the song came from and the place it is about, as seemingly, there is a Carrickfergus is the south of Ireland too. Wherever or whatever its origins, it is well loved.
4.
The American Set
This is a set of puirt-a-beul (mouth music). Puirt were originally sung as songs for dancing to when there were no musicians about. They are very rhythmical songs, sometimes nonsense songs, sometimes songs for children but the words are Scots Gaelic.
Here the first song is a Strathspey (a particular type of Scottish dance, with a ‘Scottish snap’ in the melody) it’s about thin porridge and sowans (a Scottish dish made from the inner husk of oats) and giving the boys bread with their porridge. The second song is a Reel about a

tidy dance and a bonnie reel and a pin for the hem of a coat; the last song is about going to America, passing Edinburgh with amusing and lively lads.
5.
Raglan Road
This is a truly beautiful song. The words are by Irish poet Patrick
Kavanagh set to the air of 'The Dawning of the Day'(Fáinne Geal an
Lae) Kavanagh gave this to Luke Kelly of The Dubliners who made it best known. I now sing this with The Chieftains. Kavanagh was in love with a young Hilda Moriarty but knew the relationship was likely to fail as she was 18years his junior.
6.
Buachaill ón Éirne (A boy from Erne)
This is another well-known Irish song. This time about a bold young man who thinks he is quite a catch. He owns a ‘good part of Cork, two sides of Tir Eoghain’ and is the ‘heir to County Mayo’. I first heard this sung by ‘Clannad’.
7.
A Mháiri bhóidheach (Beautiful Mary)
This is a traditional Scots Gaelic love song about a girl called Mary.
Mary has made such an impression on the young man in the story that 'black snow will be seen on trees or fish found high on the mountain slopes' before his love for Mary will change. He does not know where she is but wishes her well. This song is often sung in
Nova Scotia where many songs travelled to from Scotland.
8.
My Grandmother’s eyes
This is a song about emigration written by Martin Furey, son of
Finbar Furey. Martin sings with ‘The High Kings’. When the Irish left in droves on a ship bound for America, this was referred to as an

'American Wake'. Martin wrote the song about his Granny Nora when he was leaving for the USA the first time as a teenager to work in a printing company in Boston. It was brought to my attention by bouzouki player Karol Lynch from Ennis.
9.
Chaidh mo Dhonnachadh donn bheinn (My Duncan will never return)
10.
A song of love for a young man called Duncan who will never return home. This was collected by Calum Maclean, Sorley MacLean’s brother, from the singing of his uncle Angus Nicolson who was a shepherd in the Scottish Highlands but who returned home in 1940 to live on Raasay, off the island of Skye. Angus in turn learned most of his songs from a woman called Mary MacIntosh, Màiri Iain ’ic
Chaluim.
Lord Yester
The words of this song are by George Weir (a baker from Peebles,
Scotland) and it was put to music by the late Roy Williamson of
Scottish duo 'The Corries'. It imagines how women would come to terms with their men not returning home, presumably lost in battle, and suggests the women believe their men go on to fight for some
‘greater cause’ elsewhere in world.