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Mo Rùn Ailean

Contributors
Date 29 December 1949
Track ID 21619
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

CW0026B.111

Original Tape ID

CW0026B

Summary

This waulking song has three separate sections, and the chorus vocables change after the first section. In the opening section, the composer describes how she looked into the distance and saw her lover's ship. He was at the helm. The second section contains interesting references to waulking. In the final section, the composer tells of her pregnancy, and defends it by saying that the father is "the brown-haired scholar of English".

Item Notes

47 half-lines sung. Chorus accompaniment during refrain. Recorded at Chapelhouse, Castlebay, from the Vibrator Convertor, at a ceilidh arranged by the Barra Folklore Committee

See:
'Hebridean Folksongs' vol. 2 (J. L. Campbell and F. Collinson), no. LXXVI.
'Scottish Tradition 3 - Waulking Songs from Barra' (The School of Scottish Studies)
'Folksongs and Folklore of South Uist' (M. F. Shaw) song 97
'Òrain Luaidh Màiri Nighean Alasdair' (K. C. Craig, 1949) p. 39

Recording Location

County - Inverness-shire

Parish - Barra

Island - Barra

Village/Place - Castlebay

Language

Gaelic

Genre

Song

Collection

Canna

Source Type

Wire

Audio Quality

Good