Mo ghille mear
This is another of those great old folk songs that has several versions. The first one below, and the music that you are listening to, is Barry Taylors version. My best guess at the version that Sting recorded with The Chieftains is the second. (The web site that contains all of Sting's lyrics says that the words are "Conjectural".)
What is known is that the original Gaelic version was writen by the 18 th century poet Sean Clarach MacDomhnail. It is one of many Irsih Jacobite songs written in honour of Prince Charles Stewart, who was known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie". The air is, appropriately, of Scottish orgin, a version of "The White Cockade" by Jim Connell, a 19 th Century Irish exile in Scotland, originally set the words of "The old Red Flag" to the same tune.
It is also well known that this song is sung like an anthem in many pubs at closing time. I suspect that it is a method of extracting a few extra minuets of drinking time.
A while ago, a thoughtful visitor to the site, Cullyn Mac Farlane, sent me a message saying, "When i had heard the chieftains version of "our hero" Mo Ghile Mear i always thought that the word the used was gentle mien, in other words a nice face." which seems logical.
More recently, a scholar of all things Celtic (F. J. Taylor) sent me more information. It is included as the last version on this page.
MO GHILE MEAR (OUR HERO)
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Written by Sean Clarach MacDomhnail
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Seal da rabhas im' mhaighdean shéimh,'S anois im' bhaintreach chaite thréith,Mo chéile ag treabhadh na dtonn go tréanDe bharr na gcnoc is i n-imigcéin.
'Sé mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear,'Sé mo Chaesar, Ghile Mear,Suan ná séan ní bhfuaireas féinÓ chuaigh i gcéin mo Ghile Mear.
Bímse buan ar buaidhirt gach ló,Ag caoi go cruaidh 's ag tuar na ndeórMar scaoileadh uaim an buachaill beó'S ná ríomhtar tuairisc uaidh, mo bhrón.
Ní labhrann cuach go suairc ar nóinIs níl guth gadhair i gcoillte cnó,Ná maidin shamhraidh i gcleanntaibh ceoighÓ d'imthigh uaim an buachaill beó.
Marcach uasal uaibhreach óg,Gas gan gruaim is suairce snódh,Glac is luaimneach, luath i ngleoAg teascadh an tslua 's ag tuargain treon.
Seinntear stair ar chlairsigh cheoil's líontair táinte cárt ar bordLe hinntinn ard gan chaim, gan cheóChun saoghal is sláinte d' fhagháil dom leómhan.
Ghile mear 'sa seal faoi chumha,'s Eire go léir faoi chlócaibh dubha;Suan ná séan ní bhfuaireas féinÓ luaidh i gcéin mo Ghile Mear.
MO GHILE MEAR (OUR HERO)
Grief and pain are all I know
My heart is sore
My tears a'flow
We saw him go ....
No word we know of him...
Chorus
A proud and gallant cavalier
A high man's scion of gentle mean(?)
A fiery blade engaged to reap(?)
He'd break the bravest in the field
Chorus
Come sing his praise as sweet harps play
And proudly toast his noble frame
With spirit and with mind aflame
So wish him strength and length of day
Chorus
Mo Ghile Mear
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Written by le Seán Clárach Mac Domnhnaill (1691-1754 AD)
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MacDonnell was a great Tipperary bard, of whom there are many interesting tales. He was a laborer by trade, but educated in the "hedge-schools." He was a great poet.
He was literate in Gaelic, Greek, Latin, and English, and this song (Gile Mear) reflects that literacy, with its Classical references to Caesar, Phoebus (Apollo), Mars and Cupid, as well as the references to Celtic gods and heroes such as Lugh, Fergus, etc.
It is said that he once entered an upper-class book seller's in Cork, and was looking at a leather-bound, gilt-edged, folio copy of the Iliad in the original Greek. He was holding it upside down, which gave the owner and assembled gentry great amusement to see the "illiterate peasant with the marks of the sty on his brogues."
He asked the owner; "Beggin' ye pardon, yer Honour, but how much is this book here?"
The owner, greatly amused, said; "50 guineas Paddy, but if ye can read it, you may have it."
MacDonnell then turned the book around and began reading from it in fluent Greek. The dumbfounded owner was bound to his oath, and the assembled gentry got even greater amusement at his considerable expense! (50 guineas was a huge sum in those days.)
In his declining years, word was mistakenly circulated of his demise before the actual event. One of his competitors composed a moving poetic elegy. MacDonell was said to have responded tartly to the effect that while he appreciated the sentiment, he preferred if the poem was released only after his actual death! (It was.)
This song was composed c. 1746 AD. It is a rosg-cathadh (in Scottish Gaelic, brosnachadh), a battle hymn or incitement. (These correspond to the "paen" sung by ancient Greek warriors going into battle, which may indicate an even more ancient Indo-European tradition.)
It was intended to invite Prince Charles Edward Stuart, who had but recently fled Scotland after the failure of the 1745 Jacobite Rising, to return, and to incite the Irish to join in another Rising.
(The 1745 Rising had taken place in Scotland and England, when Prince Charles Edward Stuart landed and attempted to regain the throne of his grandfather, James VII and II of Scotland and England and Ireland respectively, for his father, who was James VIII and III in the Jacobite reckoning.
James VII / II had been unseated by the Dutch ruler, William of Orange in the coup known by the Whigs and their successors as the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688-89, which was followed by the first Jacobite War {1689-91}. William, who was married to James' daughter Mary, was invited to assume the throne by a cabal of English and some Scots magnates, due to the open Catholicism of James and his unpopularity, esp. with the more radical Protestant elements in Britain. There were other abortive risings, in 1715 and 1719.)
Ireland had played little part directly, although most of the "French" troops who landed in support of the Rising were made up of Irish mercenaries in the French service.)
From internal evidence, it was probably written shortly after the Rising failed, as some of the metaphors seem to reflect Charles Edward's escape after Culloden. Charles may have been in France, or still on the dodge in Scotland. The general tone being one of his having "left," as opposed to his coming or presence. Also, the verses reflect a desire that the "dashing darling" come again, as opposed to a first coming.
Although many of the Gaels in Ireland and Scotland viewed them as the true heirs, the Stuarts had never been particularly kind or useful to the Gaels in either country, especially the Catholic Irish.
Jamie Baggie-breeks (the Sixth of Scotland, First of England and Ireland) had been particularly UN-kind, "planting" Ulster with Scots Protestant settlers who became the "Ulster Scots", aka the "Scotch-Irish", sowing the seeds of troubles that continue to this day.
Despite this and other deeds, the Irish rose in the Stuart cause in the English Civil War, and again in the first Jacobite War, as well as serving as mercenaries in the French levies sent to Scotland in the latter wars.
Of course, it must be remembered that one of the reasons James VII / II was deposed in the first place was because he had openly converted to Catholicism and had an heir who was likely to be raised Catholic. This gave the Catholic Gaels both in Ireland and Scotland (and there still were a fair number of Catholic Gaels in Scotland at that time) the hope of more just treatment under a Catholic monarch as opposed to a Protestant monarch.
Couched as a love song, it is one of the poetic "code songs" so common in a time and place where patriotic sentiments could lead to death, imprisonment, or exile.
The "Gile Mear" was Prince Charles Edward Stuart. Charles Edward is compared favorably to Caesar, Apollo, Lugh, and other Classical and Celtic gods and heroes. For example, the phrase; "Is cosuil e le h-Aonghus Og" means lit.; "T'is "like-eye" he with Angus Og," (i.e.; he is "like unto" Angus Og, an ancient god of youth and beauty.)
The title is translated variously as "shining {or dashing} darling."
Fr. Dineen's authoritative dictionary says "gile" means; "brightness, whiteness, a term of endearment... and gives the term "a ghile" as; "dearest" and na ghile as; "great. brightest, beloved" so the meaning is fairly clear.
{Sometimes it is translated as "dashing or shining lad," due to the word Gile sometimes being mistaken for "giolla" or "gillie" a boy. However, all old written versions I have seen, particularly Hyde's authoritative version, are rendered "Gile", and the tradition bearers I have spoken with on this were unanimous on this being the word and meaning}.
"Mear" also has many meanings, but among the first are; "swift, sudden, lively, active, valiant, joyous, giddy, raging, mad, and wild." It can also mean "produce {of the land}, "offspring" or "descendants" and "fosterling" or "pet." This word is also related to "mearcach," which has the meaning of impetuousness, even to the point of rashness.
This is particularly interesting in light of the fact that the meaning of produce and offspring can be connected to Charles as the "true king" who, in Celtic belief, was the one who would bring fertility and productiveness to the land and people (probably derived from the old "Corn King" beliefs).
This is reinforced by the mention of the cuckoo not singing, or the cries of the hounds not being heard - i.e.; all nature was off-balance awaiting the advent of the true king who would cause the land to be productive again. (It is interesting also to note that Scotland, at least, had suffered harsh weather and bad harvests for two years preceding the '45. This would not have escaped the bard's notice.)
Likewise, the meaning of fosterling is important because the closest and most important relationships in Celtic culture were those of fosterage, as in the old Gaelic proverb; "Blood to 10 degrees, fosterage to 100." A warrior or chief's shield-brother was normally his foster-brother.
This is all very typical of bardic heroic poetry - they make runs and use words with multiple meanings and levels for those "in the know" - as all their audiences would have been then.
I once had the entire set of verses from Douglas Hyde's great book, "Love Songs of Connaught", given to me in Cul Aodh (Co. Cork) by the local seannachaidh, Sean Dineen. Unfortunately, the briefcase containing my only copy was stolen. The below is a pastiche of the best words and verses I could find or remember, with some alternate versions or words. Some of the translations are my own, except where the extant translation was already suitable. The translations are meant to be comprehensible, not poetic, and hopefully (with the notes) still give the flavor of the Gaelic.
