"Mo Ghile Mear" (translated "My Gallant Darling", "My
Spirited Lad" and variants) is a traditional Irish
song.
The lyrics are partially based on Bímse Buan ar Buairt
Gach Ló ("My Heart is Sore with Sorrow Deep", c.
1746), a lament of the failure of the Jacobite rising
of 1745. The original poem is in the voice of the
personification of Ireland, Éire, lamenting the exile
of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Mo ghile mear is a term
applied to the Pretender in numerous Jacobite songs of
the peri...(+)
"Mo Ghile Mear" (translated "My Gallant Darling", "My
Spirited Lad" and variants) is a traditional Irish
song.
The lyrics are partially based on Bímse Buan ar Buairt
Gach Ló ("My Heart is Sore with Sorrow Deep", c.
1746), a lament of the failure of the Jacobite rising
of 1745. The original poem is in the voice of the
personification of Ireland, Éire, lamenting the exile
of Bonnie Prince Charlie. Mo ghile mear is a term
applied to the Pretender in numerous Jacobite songs of
the period. O'Daly (1866) reports that many of the
Irish Jacobite songs were set to the tune The White
Cockade. This is in origin a love song of the 17th
century, the "White Cockade" (cnotadh bán) being an
ornament of ribbons worn by young women, but the term
was re-interpreted to mean a military cockade in the
Jacobite context.
Another part of the lyrics is based in an earlier
Jacobite poem by Mac Domhnaill, Seal do bhíos im
mhaighdin shéimh. This was published in Edward Walsh's
Irish Popular Songs (Dublin, 1847) under the title of
"Air Bharr na gCnoc 'san Ime gCéin — Over the Hills
and Far Away". Walsh notes that this poem was "said to
be the first Jacobite effort" by Mac Domhnaill, written
during the Jacobite rising of 1715, so that here the
exiled hero is the "Old Pretender", James Francis
Edward Stuart.
The composition of the modern song is associated with
composer Seán Ó Riada, who established an
Irish-language choir in Cúil Aodha, County Cork, in
the 1960s. The tune to which it is now set was
collected by Ó Riada from an elderly resident of Cúil
Aodha called Domhnall Ó Buachalla. Ó Riada died
prematurely in 1971, and the song was composed about a
year after his death, in c. 1972, with Ó Riada himself
now becoming the departed hero lamented in the text.
The point of departure for the song was the tape
recording of Domhnall Ó Buachalla singing the tune. Ó
Riada's son Peadar suggested to Dónal Ó Liatháin
that he should make a song from this melody.
Ó Liatháin decided to select verses from Mac
Domhnaill's poem and set them to the tune. He chose
those that were the most "universal", so that the
modern song is no longer an explicit reference to the
Jacobite rising but in its origin a lament for the
death of Seán Ó Riada.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mo_Ghile_Mear).
Although originally created for traditional Irish
instruments, I created this Interpretation of "My
Gallant Darling" for Flute, Oboe & Celtic or Concert
(Pedal) Harp.