Gartan Mother's Lullaby

"Gartan Mother's Lullaby"
Song
Published	1904
Writer	Seosamh MacCathmhaoil (Lyrics)

"Gartan Mother's Lullaby" is an old Irish song and poem written by Herbert Hughes and Seosamh Mac Cathmhaoil, first published in Songs of Uladh [Ulster] in 1904. Hughes collected the trad melody in Donegal the previous year and Campbell wrote the lyrics. {source: Irish Country Songs - Herbert Hughes}.The song is a lullaby by a mother, from the parish of Gartan in County Donegal, to her child. The song refers to a number of figures in Irish mythology, places in Ireland and words in the Irish language. (Gartan is often misspelled as Garten.)

Words of interest

• Aoibheall of Carraig Leath,(pronounced evil of carrickla) commonly known as Aoibhinn the Beautiful - who is the queen of the Northern Fairies.
• The Green Man,(or Fear Glas in Irish) it is said if you see him in the morning, "no ill follows"; but if at night, death or some other terrible misfortune will surely overtake you. He is sometimes called Fear Liath, or the Grey Man.
• Siabhra, is a generic term for an Irish fairy of any kind. In ancient writings the Tuatha de Danann, or little magicians of the Pagan Irish, were called "siabhra" without distinction.
• Tearmann, Irish for Termon, a village near Gartan in Donegal.
• Leanbhan, is an old Irish word for little child. (leanbh is Irish for child +án leanbhán is its diminutive.)

Covers

• 2010 - Fionnuala Sherry covered on the album Songs From Before
• 2006 - Órla Fallon, covered on the album The Water Is Wide
• 2000 - Meryl Streep, recorded for the album For Our Children: 10th Anniversary
• 1999 - The Corries, appears on their album The Best of The Corries
• 1972 - The Dubliners, on their album Double Dubliners

Lyrics

Sleep, O babe, for the red-bee hums

The silent twilight's fall:

Aibheall from the Grey Rock comes

To wrap the world in thrall.

A leanbhan O, my child, my joy,

My love and heart's-desire,

The crickets sing you lullaby

Beside the dying fire.

Dusk is drawn, and the Green Man's Thorn

Is wreathed in rings of fog:

Siabhra sails his boat till morn

Upon the Starry Bog.

A leanbhan O, the pale half moon

Hath brimmed her cusp in dew,

And weeps to hear the sad sleep-tune

I sing, O love, to you.

Faintly sweet doth the chapel bell

Ring o'er the valley dim:

Tearmann's peasant-voices swell

In fragrant evening hymn.

A leanbhan O, the low bell rings

My little lamb to rest

And angel-dreams, till morning sings

Its music in your breast.

Sleep, O babe, for the red-bee hums

The silent twighlight's fall,

Aoibheall from the Grey Rock comes

To wrap the world in thrall.

A leanbhan O, my child, my joy,

My love and heart's-desire,

The crickets sing you lullaby

Beside the dying fire.