The White Strand song

 When I woke up this morning, the White Strand song ("Amhrán na Trá Báine") was in my mind, for no reason at all. This was not a dream, but a memory. I was 16 when I heard of this song first, on summer camp in the Gaeltacht. Brother Flately, whom we called Pancho, was a pioneer in using a tape recorder for Irish lessons. He played back to us students a recording he had made of a debate by local men. One of the speakers used the phrase "Is cuma leis an gCeallach," (meaning "It doesn't matter at all"). I thought the actual words used were "Is cuma leis an ngeallach," literally meaning "The moon doesn't mind," but Pancho explained that the literal meaning, taken from a song well-known in Conamara, was "Kelly doesn't Care.)" (Kelly doesn't care, because he is the man who took over the farm following the tragic drowning of the author's three brothers at sea while fishing in a currach).

Now, it turns out that this song is one of the Great Songs (Amhrán Mór) of Conamara. An "Amhrán Mór" does not tell of a love affair. or trajedy, or comic event, or politics, but, like a novel, tells the whole story of an era.

The song opens with the words "Mo mhíle slán le hÉirinn bhocht, is nach breá an rud an tEarrach féin," ("My thousand farewells to poor Ireland, and isn't Spring itself wonderful").

I never got the full import of these words until forty years later. An elderly cousin in America wrote to my wife how he would love to see a traditional bonfire on his forthcoming visit. Now, he was coming in August, not June, which is bonfire month, but we organised a community bonfire that August to please him (and ourselves, of course). Talking to me at the bonfire, he said, that, if he ever visited Ireland again, it would be in the spring. Why so? "I recall in my youthful memories that, in spring, all the hedgerows would burst into white blossoms and the fields yellow with buttercups. This is the Ireland I still dream of."

And this is the wonder of spring that Brigid O'Malley sings about and that every emigrant from rural Ireland would "get."

The tune is recognised in Conamara as the air of Bridid O'Malley's song, but it is older than that. A young emigrant from my father's place, on his way to Australia, in 1904, wrote, "The Lusmagh Fields so Green." Sending it home in a letter, a traditional musician put it to this same tune, proving that the tune was there before Bridid's words.

"Lusmagh Fields so Green" is sung by Johnny McEvoy, and I have an English version of the other " Farewell to Poor Ireland," both available, inter alia, on YouTube.

Brigid O'Malley emigrated to Boston after her three brothers were drowned. She was there for the Great Depression and times were hard. She eventually returned to Conamara where she was famous for singing her song. She also sang it to acclaim in Boston, but completed the story with verses added after coming home.