Luan a’ tSléibhe

Background

see A Hidden Ulster pp. 324-7319-23 for detailed references and information

The title, Monday on the Mountain means The Day of Judgement. The air is one simple melodic line repeated.

Religious songs and the keening tradition

This is one of a number of religious songs found in the Oriel tradition which is also found in the Donegal song tradition. There was an active keening tradition in the region within living memory. The religious songs such as this one and Amhrán na Páise (AHU pp319-323) were closely associated with the keening tradition and often replaced the formal keening, as songs of lamentation sung at wakes and during Lent. Most of the songs were on the theme of Christ’s passion and the grief of his mother, Mary.  This song is a supplication to Jesus through his mother, with whom the ordinary people identified and who was regarded as one of their own (AHU pp.325-7).

Women were the main source of these songs and they were deeply spiritual. One singer was described as,

‘Bean a chonnaic gach aon rud sa síorraidheacht agus nach bhfaca sa tsaoghal grandha seo acht na riachtanaidhe. Mar a dubhairt sí í féin: ‘Cha rabh ar a tsaoghal seo acht ceo acht má théidheann an ceo seo i dtairbhe duit ar do astar go flaithis Dé, bhal glóir do Dhia ar a shon’

‘A woman who saw every thing in terms of eternity and only saw in this awful life but the necessities. As she herself said: ‘Life was but a mist but if that mist was to ones advantage in the journey to God’s heaven, well glory be to God for that’ (AHU p. 396).

There were a number of singers associated with the singing of religious songs, known as ‘dántaí’ or ‘dáns’ and were were a distinct category of song distinct from secular traditional song, sung mainly during Lent. Sarah/Sally Humphries and Susan McGlade were among the most significant sources of religious songs. Through translation of their family and married names, and variants of their first names, they are occasionally confused with one another (AHU pp.394-97). They were from the Lislea and Killeavy area of south Armagh and were mostly known for their repertoire of religious songs.

‘Irish was the language of the spirit…’

Although Irish was not spoken in the community towards the end of their lives, accounts are given of these songs of lamentation being sung during Lent and that they prayed in Irish and blessed each other in Irish, as if the English was an inadequate medium for expressing emotion and intimacy, ‘unnatural to the tongue and lacking power and precision’ (AHU p. 396f).

Storyteller: Mary Nugent Dromintee c.1940. © A Hidden Ulster & Oriel Arts 2017

Collector Tommy Hollywood noted that Sally Humphries, ’only spoke Irish occasionally as English had taken hold in the district. She went to school locally in Maphoner, and she told him that her parents both had little English and that all their praying was done in Irish together with the singing of the mournful laments throughout Lent.’(AHU p 396).

The collector Michael J. Murphy noted that Mary Nugent of Dromintee and other old people ‘use Irish to express thoughts when under stress of some emotion.’ (AHU p. 396 f). On Sarah McGlade’s deathbed ‘came another old woman from the mountain, an Irish speaker also a friend of their early days. They saluted each other in Irish and having conversed for a while, blessed each other in Irish and parted forever.’ (AHU 395-6).The last of the Irish speakers would go about their daily lives through the medium of English but for Sarah McGlade and Sally Humphries ‘Irish was the language of the spirit between herself and her God’ (AHU p.396)

Religious songs as treasure

Sarah McGlade (AHU 394-7) was noted for her great store of religious songs, and many collectors visited her. She held her store of songs as treasure to be respected and cherished and didn’t part easily with the songs. One local collector, Tomás Ó Cuilleannáin (Tommy Hollywood) from Mullaghban remarked while he was collecting songs from her in 1908:

‘Thug mé cuairt ar Shorcha. Bhí daoine eile ann ar lorg na Gaedhilge roimhe liom. Chuir sí an ruaig orra. Dubhairt siad liom nach dtabharfadh sí cead damh dul isteach – go raibh sí go hiontach nimhneach crosta. Char ghéill mé dha dtarraingearacht. Chuaidh mé chuici agus thug sí cead damhsa dul isteach. Cha dtug mé fios fatha mo ghnoithe dí go raibh mé tamall beag astoigh. Chuir mé i gcéill dí gur rugadh agus tógadh ins a pharoiste mé agus go rabh deirbhshiur de mo chuid ’na múinteor sa pharóiste. Ba mhór an choispeán ar aghaidh damhsa an sgéal sin mar bhí aithne aici uirri. Bhí fhios agam go rabh Soraca cráibhtheach agus ar an adhbhar go rabh ainm na cháibhtheachta ar mo dheirbhsiur, shaol mé go racadh an cráibhtheacht sin i dtairbhe damh. [ ..]‘An bhfuil dánta diadhanta agat?’ Ar a bpointe boise dubhairt sí go rabh agus go raibh sí sásta a rabh aici a thabhairt damh. Annsin dinnis sí an sgéal mar gheall ar na buachaillí eile. Chuaidh siad isteach chuici gan ‘Dia Duit’ nó ‘Dia is Muire duit’ a rádh agus d’fhiafruigh siad dí: ‘Have you any oul cráibhtheach songs’? Shaol sí gur buachaillí dí mhúinteacha droch mheasa iad agus nach rabh an oiread de urraim aca ar na dántaibh cráibhtheacha is ba chóir. Sin an fath gur chuir sí an ruaig orra’

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‘I visited Sarah. There were others looking for Irish before me. She had chased them. They told me that she was very sharp and cross. I didn’t give in to their predictions. I went to her and she let me in. I didn’t tell her the cause of my visit until I was there a little while. I let her know that I was born and reared in the parish and that my sister was a teacher in the parish. That was a great step ahead for me, as she knew her. I knew that Sally was religious and as my sister had the reputation for being religious too, I thought that piety would be to my advantage […].  ‘Have you any religious dantaí’? Straight away she said she had and that she was happy to give me what she had. Then she told me of the other lads. They went in without greeting her with ‘God be with you’ or ‘God and Mary with you’ and asked her (in English): ‘Have you any oul’ cráibhtheach (religious) songs’? She thought them bad-mannered and discourteous and lacking the respect that they should have had for the dántaí. That was why she chased them. (AHU p. 396)

©Pádraigín Ní Uallacháín Oriel Arts 2020