Words for An tSeabhean Bhocht

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 3:45 am

Does anyone have the words for this song (The poor old woman), and/or a different score than the one I read in Waltons' 110 Irelands's Best Slow Airs ?
My village sponsors a Bantry Longboat (yawl) and I gather the song is connected to the Bantry bay disaster.

(edited cause half the Subject disappeared

)

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Zubivka on 2002-10-03 05:35 ]</font>

Cayden · Post by **Cayden** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 4:08 am

The most common words are more associated with the 1798 rising.
They can be found in Colm O Lochlian's second volume 'More Irish Street Ballads'.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Wed Oct 02, 2002 11:29 am

Sorry to be dense but is this the same
as "Sean Van Vocht" but just spelled a little closer to correct??? I got it on Donal Lunny cd.

Zubivka · Post by **Zubivka** » Thu Oct 03, 2002 12:46 am

Thanks for the indication, Peter.

On 2002-10-02 06:08, Peter Laban wrote:
The most common words are more associated with the 1798 rising.

Aren't the rising and the French aborted expedition related, the latter breaking the hopes for the first ?

Peter Laban also wrote:
They can be found in Colm O Lochlian's second volume 'More Irish Street Ballads'.

Well, I'll try this though I confirm we do have electricity (plus nuke wastes, and free oil on the shore we're welcome to take home), but scarce supply of such books, except ordering from Ossian's a few weeks ahead.

Wombat · Post by **Wombat** » Thu Oct 17, 2002 9:37 am

On 2002-10-02 13:29, The Weekenders wrote:
Sorry to be dense but is this the same
as "Sean Van Vocht" but just spelled a little closer to correct??? I got it on Donal Lunny cd.

Strange isn't it. I just had the same thought. I wonder why? If we're right about it being the same tune then I think the lyrics are in the accompanying booklet. Can't check though—that one's in storage until Wombat buys a new burrow.

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Thu Oct 17, 2002 12:37 pm

Well my question has sat here for a long time so....

The songs mentions the French, liberty, the Orangement etc so I figured it was earlier than 98 but I am sketchy on Irish history...

Its funny how the chorus is just plopped on there... perhaps an archaic song form or something. Almost like a sea chantey the way it occurs...

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Fri Oct 18, 2002 2:22 am

Shan Van Vocht is indeed just a phonetic rendering of the Irish words, the other spelling being the Irish one. It means "poor old woman", the woman in question being an allegoric personification of Ireland.

The force which the French sent, and which the poor naïve Irish saw as their salvation, was no more than a minor diversionary action, or at best highly speculative, in their eyes. In a large, detailed study of Napoleon's military campaigns which I have read, it is dismissed in a sentence or two as a feint designed to distract the attention of the British from his planned adventure in Egypt.

After the French force was defeated, its members were treated as prisoners of war and conveyed by boat to Dublin for repatriation, while their Irish "allies" were hanged, drawn and all the rest of it.

There's a lesson there for any small country that looks for military assistance and places its trust in a big power.

I've been allowing a parody to gestate (very slowly) along the following lines, on the theme of small countries, big powers and military adventurism such as is currently very popular again in spite of the lessons of the last century:

Oh the French are on the sea
Says the Sean-bhean bhocht
But they'll leave us in the lurch
And we'll be rightly f.....

The Weekenders · Post by **The Weekenders** » Fri Oct 18, 2002 1:48 pm

Thanks for answering my question and the bonus laugh, Rog!!!