Sliabh Geal gCua

(Irish place name)
Home > Artists > Anúna | Submitted by Norascanlon
This is a traditional Irish song arranged by Michael McGlynn. It appears on Anúna's third/fourth album Omnis, first re more...

This is a traditional Irish song arranged by Michael McGlynn. It appears on Anúna’s third/fourth album Omnis, first released in 1995 on the Danú label, and for contractual reasons was rerecorded in 1996 and released on the Celtic Heartbeat/Universal label in the USA in 1997.

Also known as Sliabh Geal gCua na Féile, this song was written in the late 19th century by Pádraig Ó Míléadha, who was an exile working in the coal mines of Wales. Pádraig was born in West Waterford, in the district known since as ‘Na Déise’ (‘The Decies’), in 1877.

Sliabh gCua (pronounce: ‘shleeve gooa’) is a traditional district of west County Waterford, Ireland, between Clonmel and Dungarvan. It was an Irish-speaking area until the late 19th century. Many people associated with the Irish sean-nós singing tradition, such as Pádraig Ó Mileadha and Labhrás Ó Cadhla, who came from Sliabh gCua. One of the best-loved emigrant songs in the sean-nós canon, Sliabh Geal gCua na Féile, was written by Ó Mileadha while he worked in Wales.

From ballinagree.freeservers.com

The second composition of note is his song, Sliabh Geal gCua, a poem in song that has become accepted as one of Ireland’s greatest songs of exile and one of the classics of the language this century. It was written in Wales.

Pádraig would often go with his wife and children to the seaside – Swansea Bay, Mumbles, the many coves of Gower. There he would sit and think of his childhood home, of his own language and of the grand old people who had spoken that language all around him in his earliest years.

Do you have any further information about this song? Edit this page and help us expand this section. ^close

Irish

English

Oh bright, happy Slieve Cua
You are so far from me
I am sitting here alone
By the inlet weak with sorrow
The water flows beside me
Between me and the land of my heart
Oh bright, happy Slieve Cua
I am in a terrible state

If I were among my own people
In the green-hedged place of the gentle men
When the sun's heat falls
From the flawless sky
Or if I were there beneath the starry night
When the dew falls on the grass
Oh bright Slieve Cua, would it not
Be a great charity if I could have that

It is sad that I was not brought up
With great knowledge and learning
In noble, beautiful Irish
My mouth would take flight
I would plough my way across the sea
And I would bring you great gifts
For bright Slieve Cua
I would like to raise you above all

If I were among my own people
In the green-hedged place of the gentle men
When the sun's heat falls
From the flawless sky
Or if I were there beneath the starry night
When the dew falls on the grass
Oh bright Slieve Cua, would it not
Be a great charity if I could have that

Can you provide a better translation?

Chords

We will work out the chords for you on request.