SHEILA NEE IYER (Sile Ní Ghadhra)
Track 22
Notes on the Track (22)
Recorded: Notes on the Song
The original Síle Ní Ghadhra is a 17th-century song/poem of the Aisling type in which the lady of the vision is Ireland ‘in sore distress’. The song which Paddy Tunney sings (though not a translation), introduces the customary classical allusions – is she Flora, Aurora or the famed Queen of Tyre, etc. The poet pledges unfailing loyalty and there the plot would seem to rest. The song is a remarkable example of what Paddy has described as ‘the high-minded effusions of our hedge-schoolmaster poets’. Unusually, the song has a five-line melody and a rhyming pattern of AAABB. (JT)
The Singers
Paddy Tunney
Rec. 1991
The Song Texts
The Tunney Song Tradition Trust’s Archive of Song Texts preserves the words of traditional songs, offering a valuable resource for singers and anyone interested in the living song tradition.
Where the Linnets Sing 2026, developed by the Tunney Song Tradition Trust with Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, celebrates 75 Bliain ag Fás by bringing the original collection to a new online audience, enriched with fifteen additional tracks, eleven more voices and two further generations of the tradition.
