Ye Bockagh
| TYPE | 3 - Complex Melody |
| TOPIC | Rural life |
| TUNE STRUCTURE | A8 B8 |
| VERSE STRUCTURE | 2v 8l |
| TIME SIGNATURE |
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| KEY SIGNATURE | ♯ |
| TONAL CENTRE | G |
| INCIPIT | GF♯EF♯EDB,B,C♯,DA,B, |
| GENRE | Amhrán Mór |
| TEXT SOURCE | Bunting Notebooks. Special Collections, QUB Library. MS 4.7 98 |
| TUNE SOURCE | A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin: John and William Neal, 1724), p.26 |
| FIRST LINE | Tá mo chúrsa déanta agus mo shaidhbhris |
| NOTATED INCIPIT | |
| Bunting (1840) claimed that this song was composed by Ruairí Dall Ó Catháin in c.1650 to lament his declining fortunes. However the song text recorded in the Bunting manuscripts celebrates a life of poverty. Nicholas Carolan notes that ‘it may more likely be that Ó Catháin’s tune has mistakenly been linked with these verses’ (Celebrated Irish Tunes, 2010 revised ed., p.98). | |
BacachTá mo chúrsa déanta agus mo shaidhbhrisSgapuidh’ ar feadh Éire;Mo chapull nó mo chaoraigh,Ní orrtha tá baodhal.Tá mo chofraigh air gach taobh dhíom,Is mo chuineog ar mo mhéaruibh,Agus mo sgillin lá an aonaighLe n-ól le mo mhion.Má’s bacach mé ar aon chois,Siubhala mé go héarach – Is níl aon chearn do ÉireNach dtoige mé mo chíos – Go Corcaigh ‘s go Dubh Éile,‘S go Baile Áth’ Cliath na dtéarmaigh,Go Droichead Áth’ na n-aontaigh,‘S go Ceanadas na Midhe.QUB Bunting MS 7/98 (Suggested in Nicholas Carolan, 2010, p.98)
The Lame BeggarMy race is run and my wealth Is scattered throughout Ireland; My horse or my sheep, It is not they that are in danger. My coffers are on every side of me, And my churn is at my hands, And I have my shilling on the fair-day To drink with my dear one. Even though I am a lame beggar with one leg, I will walk airily – And there is no corner of Ireland From which I will not take my levy – To Cork and to Dubh Éile, And to Dublin of the law-terms, to Drogheda of the fairs, And to Kells in Meath.(Translation in Nicholas Carolan, 2010, p.98)