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One of the “big” songs of West Donegal, this particular one is now only heard in Ranafast.  It’s a rather intense love song with undertones of bitterness and loss. The man who is speaking in the song has taken his sweetheart, late one night, to a favourite nook up in the mountains, but has fallen asleep. She leaves him there and then, thinking, apparently, that he has lost interest in her.

Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh’s arrangement here is the first mix. The second mix which appeared on the album “Dúlamán a’ tSléibhe” (2002) was not to Seoirse’s liking. This first one, he feels, is much better.

Composed by Trad. arranged and adapted by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh.

Composed: 1995

Musicians

Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh, lead vocals and guitar, Steáfán Hannigan, percussion & flute, Aodh Mac Ruairí, vocal harmony, Heather Innes, vocal harmony, Mike Cosgrave, keyboards & piano accordion, Saskia Tomkins, cello

Lyrics for Ag Geaftaí Bhaile Buí (At the Gates of the Yellow Town)

Music composed by English composer Benjamin Britten in 1933. The text is anonymous from the Middle-Ages. Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh re-arranged it for folk ensemble in 1998.

The recording here is from a concert broadcast on WDR of a live performance in Germany in 1998.

Composed by Benjamin Britten, Arr. Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh

Composed: 1933

Musicians

Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh, lead vocals and guitar,                                                                                                                                  Heather Innes, vocal harmony,                                                                                                                                                           Andreas Völlmecke, guitar

Lyrics for Corpus Christi Carol

A very old song from Ulster that was brought to the West Indies by Irish women and children who were deported by Oliver Cromwell in the 1640s. It was arranged by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh in 1988 for his first album “Slán agus Beannacht”. This is an out-take (the first mix) which has a lightness the final mix doesn’t pick up on.

Composed by Trad. arranged and adapted by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh

Composed: 1988

Musicians

Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh, lead vocals, vocal harmonies and guitar
Greg Scanlon, keyboard (Marimba)
Peadar McArdle, vocal harmonies
Karen Russell, vocal harmonies
Colum Sands, percussion

Lyrics for Cuach Mo Londubh Buí (Cuckoo My Yellow Blackbird)

This very old (1600s) Irish song from Ulster was collected and arranged by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh and performed here with his six-piece band Dúlamán. The recording is from a live concert in the O’Reilly Hall in UCD in 1999, Dúlamán being perhaps at the height of their powers with a huge audience of several hundred people.

There is some confusion about the exact meaning of this song. Some say it’s about the unhappy political “marriage” between Ireland and England. Others say that it is a reaction against the growing materialism in Irish towns. Whatever way you look at it, the song is paean to the simple, pastoral way of life as it existed in times gone past.

At the outset, it’s the story of the plight of a young Irish country woman from the mountains who marries a rich tavern-owner from the mouth of the River Bann in County Derry. But she is far from happy there. From the window of her new, comfortable abode she looks out onto the mountains of Inishowen where she has spent many a quiet summer’s morning looking after her father’s calves.

Composed by Trad. arranged and adapted by Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh

Composed: 1993

Musicians

Seoirse Ó Dochartaigh, lead vocals and guitar,
Steáfán Hannigan, percussion,
Aodh Mac Ruairí, vocal harmony,
Heather Innes, vocal harmony,
Tony Hunter, percussion,
Seán McKay, keyboards

Lyrics for Na Gamhna Geala (The White Calves)