Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Raiteachas na Tairngreacht: anybody know its history?

Options
  • 26-01-2013 4:12pm
    #1
    Seanchai
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,401 ✭✭✭


    Last night I dropped into An Góilín traditional singers' club in Club na Múinteoirí and they were having a Robbie Burns night of song (yesterday being the anniversary of his birth). Somebody sang 'Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation' and the lyrics were deeply against the English and the treachery of the Scots who signed the British Act of Union in 1707. Lyrics here.

    People were wondering was there any Irish equivalent to 'Such a Parcel of Rogues in a Nation' and a few people proposed Raiteachas na Tairngreacht, an aisling poem from 18th century. I had never heard of it, and unusually Mudcat is coming up short on its history. Danú, however, apparently recorded a version on their The Road Less Travelled album in 2003.
    Listen here.

    Anyway, one version of the song is given on the Mudcat website. However, neither the background to the song nor an English translation is given there. Here's the discussion:

    Lyrics:

    Aréir is mé go tláth lag, go tabhartha tnáite in easpa chirt
    Sea dhearcas ag teacht i mo láthair an bhean dob áilne fionnachruth
    Bhí gruaig a cinn go búclach buí ina slaoda síos go talamh léi
    Is le glór a béil gur bhuail sí an draíocht ar cheolta sí na Banban
    Is a chlanna Gael na n-árann, sin é ráiteachas na tairngreacht

    Tiocfaidh aon-mhac phrionsa an chomhraic gurb ainm dó siúd Bonaparte
    An tImpire is an Spáinneach ag cur gárda leis go hAlbain
    Ní bheidh siúd choíche sásta le háitreabh Rí na Sacsan a fháil
    Gan buachan cruinn le faobhar a gclaíomh go mbainfidh díol a n-athar dóibh
    Is a chlanna Gael na n-árann, sin é ráiteachas na tairngreacht

    Tiocfaidh cabhair agus fuaim orainn, is béim go léir haiteasach
    Agus glaofaim' ar ár gcúnamh chun dúbailt' ins na rainceanaibh
    Agus séidfim 'adharc is biúgal, galltrump' ar dtús an chatha amuigh
    Beidh smáil is bleást an phúdair ag baint smúit as croíthe na Sasanach
    Is a chlanna Gael na n-árann, sin é ráiteachas na tairngreacht

    Le linn dul as an bpáirc daoibh, bainí go leir bhur hataí dhaoibh
    Is guí chun Muire Máthair an lá do dhul ar Ghall-phoic
    Beidh sagairt, easpaig, bráithe is an Pápa ceann na heaglaise
    Ag guí chun Dé gach lá le fonn an fán do chur ar Shasanaigh
    Is a chlanna Gael na n-árann, sin é ráiteachas na tairngreacht

    Does anybody know any more about the origins of this poem/song?


Advertisement