Trad Tuesday - Aird Uí Chuain performed by At First Light

Aird Uí Chuain is one of many emigrant songs for the Irish. It speaks to the longing to return to country Antrim near Cushendun which is where my Irish ancestors came from. Below are the Gaelic and English lyrics.

At First Light is a traditional music Irish band made up of Members: John Mc Sherry (Uilleann Pipes, Low Whistles) Dónal O'Connor (Fiddle, Keyboards) Francis Mc Ilduff (Uilleann Pipes, Whistles, & Bodhrán) and guests Ciara McCrickard (Vocals & Fiddle) Michael McCague (Guitar, Bouzouki) Tony Byrne (Guitar) Rubén Bada (Bouzouki, Guitar, Fiddle).

Aird Uí Chuain

Dá mbeinn féin in Aird Uí Chuain
In aice an tsléibhe atá i bhfad uaim
B’annamh liom gan dul ar cuairt
Go gleann na gcuach Dé Domhnaigh

Is iomaí Nollaig a bhí mé féin
I mBun Abhann Doinne is mé gan chéill
Ag iomáin ar an trá bháin
‘Is mo chamán bán ins mo dhorn liom

Agus och och Éire ‘lig is ó,
Éire lionn dubh (melancholy) agus ó,
‘Sé mo chroí ‘tá trom ‘s bronach.

Nach tuirseach mise anseo liom féin
Nach n-áirim guth coiligh lonndubh nó traon
gealbhán, smaolach, naoscach féin
Is chan aithním féin an Domhnach

‘Sé seo an choraíocht atá buan
Ar a’ tsaol go gcuirfeadh sé cluain
Mheallfadh sé an chaora ón uan –
Agus mheall sé uaimse an óige

Dá mbeadh agam coite is rámh
D’iomairfinn liom ar dhroim a’tsnáimh
‘S mé ag duil le Dia go sroichfinn slán
Is chan aithním féin an Domhnach
English Translation

I wish I were in Ardicoan
Near yon mountain far away.
I would seldom let the Sunday go
From the Cuckoo’s glen across the bay.

It is many a Christmas Day I had
In Cushendun while still a lad;
Hurling on the White Shore Strand
With my good ash hurley in my hand.

And it’s oh dear Ireland, you’re my home!
Far from you I had to roam
And my heart is heavy and alone.

But my heart is weary all alone
And it sends a lonely cry
To the land that sings beyond my dreams
And the lonely Sundays pass me by.

Trad Tuesday - The Wheels of the World by John McSherry & Colin Harper

The Uilleann Pipe has been discussed on these pages before. John McSherry is one of the elite Irish Uilleann pipers today having played in Lunasa, Tamalin, and Coolfin. He's also played with many other musicians and his current bands, At First Light and The Ollam. He has provided the music for films such as Waking Ned Devine and This is My Father.

He currently has a book out about the Uilleann Pipe, The Wheels of the World.
From the website:

One chanter, three drones, three regulators, thirteen keys, too many near-extinctions to mention and 300 years of heroes:  that, with a frisson of fairies on moonlit knolls, is the Irish uilleann (‘ill-in’) pipes. The Wheels Of The World presents an epic tale of triumph and survival, where the soulful heart of a nation has been kept alive across ages by a slender thread of guardians – blind men, eccentrics, self-aggrandisers, noble heroes, bloody-minded revivalists and at least three people compared to Jimi Hendrix. 

Uilleann piping is Ireland’s equivalent to the story of the blues in America, save that here the trail of legends and lore is richer and deeper by far. It is the sound of eighteenth century blues – a micro-tonal virtuoso machine wielded by misfits and geniuses, often one and the same.

This is the story of a continuum, from John McSherry, a 21st century luminary, backwards in time through his three formative heroes – Paddy Keenan, Liam O’Flynn and Finbar Furey – and thence to Séamus Ennis, Willie Clancy, Johnny Doran, Leo Rowsome, Patsy Touhey and a litany of unrecorded legends before them. It is also a snapshot of professional Irish traditional musicians, after the goldrush of the late 20th century, keeping calm and carrying on.

You can order the book here:

Link to Website

John McSherry & Paul Meehan play ''An Bhean Chaointe / The Old Bush / The First Month of Summer" to a live audience on TG4's music series 'Bosca Ceoil'.