Ailiu Eanai

Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!
Shiulas an drucht's an ghrian ag eiri
Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!"

Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!
Sheolas mo bho sa ghleanntan sleibhe
Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!"

Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!
Ag fuaghail cotamor den bhreidin
Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!"

Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!
Fuaireas tomham mo thailiuir aerach
Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!

Ailiu eanai, ailiu earai!
Nach alainn e mo thailiuir aerach

The Miser and the Elf

On a mountain side there lived an elf
Dee di deedle dee deedle dee
And he worked all day as a schoemaker
Sitting under the hawthorn tree
One rainey morn an old woman did appear
She was bent up double and her hair was grey
„I don’t have any money but I need a pair of brogues
Deedil di, deedle dee, deedle dee.“

Now the Elf was canny for he knew this aul mammy
Had plenty of money to spare
So he said, „the right foot of the brogues is free
But not the other of the pair“
She went off down the road, a limpin in her brogue
And all the folks did stare,
Saying „Look at the aul mammy, now her left foot is gammy
Deedil di, deedle dee, deedle dee.“

Now the moral of the story is money can bring glory
If your left foot is one of a pair
So don’t be mean if you don’t want a scene
and you’ve plenty of money to spare.
All the people in the town of a miser soon will learn
For there’s many an elf around
So don’t go limpin though you’re mighty keen on skimpin
Deedil di, deedle dee, deedle dee.

Siuil a Ruin

I would I were on yonder hill
'Tis there I'd sit and cry my fill,
And from my eyes the tears do spill,
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan
Suil, suil, suil a ruin
Suil go sochair agus siuil go ciuin
Suil go doras agus ealaigh liom
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan

His hair was black, his eyes were blue,
His arm was strong, his word was true
I wish my love to be with you
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan
Suil, suil, suil a ruin
Suil go sochair agus siuil go ciuin
Suil go doras agus ealaigh liom
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan

I'll sell my rock, I'll sell my reel When flax is spun
I'll sell the wheel To buy my love a sword of steel
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan
Suil, suil, suil a ruin
Suil go sochair agus siuil go ciuin
Suil go doras agus ealaigh liom
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan

I'll dye my petticoats, I'll dye them red
And through the streets I'll beg my bread,
Until my parents shall wish me dead
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan
Suil, suil, suil a ruin
Suil go sochair agus siuil go ciuin Suil
go doras agus ealaigh liom
Is go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan

Rosin the Bow

I’ve travelled all over this world and now to another I go
And I know that good quarters are waiting to welcome old Rosin the Bow

To welcome old Rosin the Bow, to welcome old Rosin the Bow
And I know that good quarters are waiting to welcome old Rosin the Bow.

When I’m dead and laid out on the counter a voice I will hear from below
Saying, send down a hogshead of whiskey to welcome old Rosin the Bow
Chorus:

Get a half dozen stout fellows and let them all stagger and go
Dig a great hole in the meadow and in it put Rosin the Bow
Chorus:

Get ye a couple of bottles put one at my head and my toe
With a diamond ring scratch upon them the name of Rosin the Bow
Chorus:

I feel that old tyrant approaching, that cruel remorseless old foe
And I lift up my glass in his honour, take a drink with old Rosin the Bow
Chorus:

Selkie

An earthly nurse sits and sings and aye she sings ,By Lily Wean,
“Och little ken I my bairns father, far less the land where he dwells in.”

“For he came one night to my bed feet and a grumly guest for sure was he
Saying, “here am I, thy bairns father although I be not comely”

“I am a man upon the land, I am a Selkie in the sea
and when I’m far and far frae land my home is in the Sule Skerrie.”

And he had ta’en a purse of gold and he had placed it upon her knee
Saying,”give to me my bonny wee son and take thee up thy nurses fee.

And it shall pass on a summer day when the sun shines brightly on every stone
I’ll come and fetch my bonny wee son and teach him how to swim the foam.

The Lark in the Morning

The lark in the morning she rises off her nest
And she flies up to the heavens with the dew upon her breast.
Like the jolly ploughboy she whistles and she sings
And she comes home in the evening with the dew upon her wings

O Paddy, the ploughboy, he is a dashing blade
He goes whistling and singing in yonder leafy glade
He met with dark eyed Molly, she’s handsome I declare
And she is far more enticing than the birds up in the air

As they were coming home from the rakes of the town
The meadow being all mowen and the grass had been cut down
And as they should chance to tumble all in the new mowen hay
“Oh it’s kiss me now or never,” this bonny lass did say.

When twenty long weeks were over and had passed
Her mammy asked the reason why she thickened round the waist.
“It was the pretty ploughboy,” this lassie then did say
“For he asked me for to tumble all in the new mown hay.”

The Butcher Boy

In Moore Street where I did dwell
a butcher boy I loved right well
He courted me my life away
and now with me he will not stay.

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish I were a maid again
But a maid again I ne’er can be
till apples grow on an ivy tree.

I wish my baby it were born
and smiling on its daddy’s knee
And my poor body were dead and gone
with the long green grass growing over me.

He went upstairs and the door he broke
and he found her hangong by a rope
He took a knife and he cut her down
and in her pocket these words he found.

“Oh make my grave large wide and deep,
put a marble stone at my head and feet
and in the middle a turtle dove
that the world may know that I died for love.”

John Reilly

Fair young maiden all in a garden
Strange young man, passer by
Said: "Fair maid will ye marry me?"
This, then, sir, was her reply

"Oh no, kind sir, I cannot marry thee
For I've a love all on the sea
He's been gone for seven long years
And still no man shall marry me."

"What if he's in some battle slain
Or drowned in the deep blue sea
What if he's found another love
and he and his love both married be?"

Well if he's in some battle slain
then I will die when the moon doth wain
and if he's drowned in the deep blue sea
then I'll be true to his memory

And if he's found another love
and he and his love both married be
I wish them health and happiness
where they dwell across the sea."

He picked her up all in his arms
And he gave her kisses one, two and three
Saying: "Weep no more my own dear true love
I am your long lost John Reilly"

King of the Faeries

Up the airy mountain, through the rushy glen
We daren't go a-hunting for fear of little men.
Wee folk, old folk, marching all together
Green jacket, red cap and white owl's feather.

By the craggy hillside, through the mosses bare
They've planted thorn trees for pleasure here and there.
If any ones so daring as to dig them up in spite
They'll find the sharpest thorns in their beds at night.

High up on the hill top the old king sits
He's grown so old and grey but he's never lost his wits
He's rising with the music on the cold frosty night
To sup with the queen of the pale moonlight.

The Spinning Wheel

Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning
Close by the window young Eileen is spinning
Bent o'er the fire her blind grandmother sitting
Crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting

Merrily cheerily noiselessly whirring
Spins the wheel, rings the wheel while the foot's stirring
Sprightly and lightly and merrily ringing
Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

Eileen, a chara, I hear someone tapping
'Tis the ivy dear mother against the glass flapping
Eileen, I surely hear somebody sighing
'Tis the sound mother dear of the autumn winds dying

What's the noise I hear at the window I wonder?
'Tis the little birds chirping, the holly-bush under
What makes you shoving and moving your stool on
And singing all wrong the old song of the "Coolin"?

There's a form at the casement, the form of her true love
And he whispers with face bent, I'm waiting for you love
Get up from the stool, through the lattice step lightly
And we'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining brightly

The maid shakes her head, on her lips lays her fingers
Steps up from the stool, longs to go and yet lingers
A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother
Puts her foot on the stool spins the wheel with the other

Lazily, easily, now swings the wheel round
Slowly and lowly is heard now the reel's sound
Noiseless and light to the lattice above her
The maid steps, then leaps to the arms of her lover

Slower and slower... and slower the wheel swings
Lower... and lower... and lower the reel rings

Ere the reel and the wheel stop their ringing and moving
Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving

Wild Mountain Thyme

Oh the summertime is coming and the trees are sweetly blooming
And the wild mountain thyme grows around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?
Chorus
And we'll all go together to pluck wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather.
Will ye go, Lassie go?

I will build my love a tower near yon' pure crystal fountain
And on it I will build all the flowers of the mountain
Will ye go, Lassie go?
Chorus

If my true love she were gone I would surely find another
Where wild mountain thyme grows around the blooming heather
Will ye go, Lassie go?
Chorus

The Quiet Land of Erin (Ardai Chuin)

I’ll Tell Me Ma

I'll tell me ma when I get home, the boys won't leave the girls alone;
They pulled me hair and they stole me comb, well that's all right till I go home.
She is handsome, she is pretty, she’s the belle of Belfast city
She is courtin one, two three, please won't you tell me who is he?

Albert Mooney says he loves her, all the boys are fightin' for her.
They rap at her door, they ring at the bell, sayin, “o my true love, are ye well”
Out she comes as white as snow, rings on her fingers, bells on her toes.
Aul Annie Murphy says she’ll die if she doesn't get the fella with the roving eye.

Let the wind & the rain & the hail blow high & snow come flutterin from the sky.
She's as nice as apple pie and she'll get her own lad by and by.
When she gets a lad of her own, she won't tell her ma when she gets home.
Let them all come as they will for it's Albert Mooney she loves still.

She Moved Thru The Fair

My young love said to me,
My mother won't mind
And my father won't slight you
For your lack of kind"
And she stepped away from me
And this she did say:
It will not be long, love,
Till our wedding day"

As she stepped away from me
And she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her
Move here and move there
And then she turned homeward
With one star awake
Like the swan in the evening
Moves over the lake

Last night she came to me,
My dead love came in
So softly she came
That her feet made no din
As she laid her hand on me
And this she did say
It will not be long, love,
'Til our wedding day

The Last Rose of Summer

Tis the last rose of summer,
Left blooming all alone,
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.
No flower of her kindred,
No rose bud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
Or give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one,
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go sleep thou with them;
'Thus kindly I scatter
Thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.