I Meán Fómhair 1857, fad is a bhí beirt bhailitheoir amhrán agus ceoil – George Petrie agus Eoghan Ó Comhraí – ar cuairt choicíse in Árainn, thograíodar dul ar thuras seoltóireachta ar mhaithe le spóirt ach freisin ar mhaithe lena gcuid oibre. Seo tuairisc ó Lady Ferguson:
They sailed from island to island, taking with them on board the hooker all the local singers of whom they could hear. The music they sang was noted by Petrie and rendered on his violin – the Irish words recorded by Curry […]. As the autumnal days became shorter, the musical séances were held on terra firma and in the evening (1896, 338-9).
Tá an t-ádh linn go maireann i mBaile Átha Cliath agus i
Leipzig cóipeanna de na lámhscríbhinní a chruthaigh siad in Árainn.
I 1956, thug craoltóir Raidió Éireann Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh
cuairt ar Árainn. Agus é ag seoladh isteach ar bord an ghaltáin Dún Aengus, thapaigh sé a dheis ceoltóireacht
chroíúil an phroinntí a thaifead, ceoltóireacht a dhéantaí go rialta ar mhaithe
leis an turas trí huaire a chaitheamh go spraíúil nó le neamhaird a dhéanamh don
drochaimsir amuigh. Thaifead sé Baile Uí
Laoi ó Antoine Tónaí Ó Flátharta as Cill Rónáin agus Ríl Miss McLeod ón bhfidléar Dónal Ó Conchubhair as Ciarraí.
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| An Dún Aengus ag fágáil Cill Rónáin (Bailiúchán Béaloideas Árann) |
Agus bhí lá sna 1960í nó sna 1970í nuair nár sheol an Naomh Éanna as Gaillimh mar nár fheil an drochaimsir di. In ainneoin na haimsire, chroch Mary Bhríd Rua Uí Fhlaithbheartaigh suas a misneach agus d’fhill ar Árainn ar bord tráiléara. Lena hintinn a choinneáil de thinneas farraige, dúirt Tommy Mhaidhcilín Seoighe as Iaráirne amhrán as Cill Mhuirbhigh di: Seanmóir Uí Chonchubhair. Caithfidh go mba fadálach dian an turas é mar spreag sé Tommy chun 15 véarsa a thabhairt uaidh (mo bhuíochas le mac Mhary, Máirtín Jaimsie, a roinn liom an leagan mara seo). Níorbh é sin an t-aon ócáid gur chan iascaire dá phaisinéirí: cloisim gur iomadh seisiún amhránaíochta a bhíodh ar bord na mbád iascaigh a sheoladh sna blianta sin as Gaillimh go hÁrainn tráthnóntaí Sathairn. Agus iad líonta le hoileánaigh a bhí ag filleadh ar an mbaile don deireadh seachtaine, bhíodh amhráin á roinnt idir na báid ar an gcainéal raidió Trawlerband 2211, agus bhíodh clann agus cairde i dtír ag éisteacht ar shean-raidió an chadhnra fhliuch lena gceol féin ag treabhadh na n-aerthonn.
Féach: Lady Mary Catherine Ferguson. Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of his Day. 2 vols. Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1896.
*
The high tourist season is upon us and the piers and airstrips of Aran are now as busy as mainland train stations: crowds coming and going, ferries mooring and casting off, and planes landing and taking off regularly with this year’s fine weather. This eternal ebb and flow of people and vessels, this journeying prompts joy and sadness as well as excitement, fatigue, and sometimes sickness! Its energy and variety has inspired the poets of Aran, as we saw in last month’s blog, but it has also inspired music at sea aboard ferries and other boats that carry people to Aran (I have yet to hear whether or not people have been singing or playing aboard Aer Árann flights!). Such maritime music-making contributes, of course, to Aran’s musical history as well as to this project, so this blogpost shares with you three episodes of musical voyaging.
In September 1857, while two music collectors – George Petrie and Eugene O’Curry – spent a fortnight in Aran, they embarked on a sailing trip that was as much for business as it was for pleasure, as Lady Ferguson recalls:
They sailed from island to island, taking with them on board the hooker all the local singers of whom they could hear. The music they sang was noted by Petrie and rendered on his violin – the Irish words recorded by Curry […]. As the autumnal days became shorter, the musical séances were held on terra firma and in the evening (1896, 338-9).
Luckily, copies of the manuscripts they created in Aran
survive in Dublin and Leipzig.
In 1956, while Raidió Éireann broadcaster Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh was en route to Aran aboard the steamer Dún Aengus, he took the opportunity to record the music of passengers who were passing the three-hour journey in the conviviality of the ship’s canteen, perhaps to distract themselves from bad weather. Ó Raghallaigh recorded Antoine Tónaí Ó Flátharta of Cill Rónáin singing Baile Uí Laoi and Kerry fiddler Dónal O’Connor playing Miss McLeod’s.
And there was a day in the 1960s or 1970s when bad weather prevented the freighter Naomh Éanna from sailing from Galway to Aran. Unperturbed, Mary Bhríd Rua Uí Fhlaithbheartaigh boarded a trawler that was better able for the challenging sea conditions. To keep her mind off seasickness, Tommy Mhaidhcilín Seoighe of Iaráirne sang her a song from Cill Mhuirbhigh: Seanmóir Uí Chonchubhair. It must have been a long and difficult journey home because Tommy managed to sing 15 verses of the song, which Mary and her family have since preserved (my thanks to Mary’s son Máirtín Jaimsie for sharing with me this sea-borne rendition). This was not the first time that a fisherman sang for his passengers: singing sessions aboard trawlers were a regular occurrence in those days when, on Saturday evenings, many islanders boarded in Galway to sail home to Aran for the weekend. As they cruised in company across Galway Bay, vessels exchanged songs via the radio channel Trawlerband 2211 and friends and family ashore re-tuned their wet-battery radios to hear their own music plough the airwaves.
In 1956, while Raidió Éireann broadcaster Pádraig Ó Raghallaigh was en route to Aran aboard the steamer Dún Aengus, he took the opportunity to record the music of passengers who were passing the three-hour journey in the conviviality of the ship’s canteen, perhaps to distract themselves from bad weather. Ó Raghallaigh recorded Antoine Tónaí Ó Flátharta of Cill Rónáin singing Baile Uí Laoi and Kerry fiddler Dónal O’Connor playing Miss McLeod’s.
And there was a day in the 1960s or 1970s when bad weather prevented the freighter Naomh Éanna from sailing from Galway to Aran. Unperturbed, Mary Bhríd Rua Uí Fhlaithbheartaigh boarded a trawler that was better able for the challenging sea conditions. To keep her mind off seasickness, Tommy Mhaidhcilín Seoighe of Iaráirne sang her a song from Cill Mhuirbhigh: Seanmóir Uí Chonchubhair. It must have been a long and difficult journey home because Tommy managed to sing 15 verses of the song, which Mary and her family have since preserved (my thanks to Mary’s son Máirtín Jaimsie for sharing with me this sea-borne rendition). This was not the first time that a fisherman sang for his passengers: singing sessions aboard trawlers were a regular occurrence in those days when, on Saturday evenings, many islanders boarded in Galway to sail home to Aran for the weekend. As they cruised in company across Galway Bay, vessels exchanged songs via the radio channel Trawlerband 2211 and friends and family ashore re-tuned their wet-battery radios to hear their own music plough the airwaves.
See: Lady Mary Catherine Ferguson. Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of his
Day. 2 vols. Edinburgh: William Blackwood & Sons, 1896.
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