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Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 4, Issue 18, Page 7

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 4, Issue 18, Page 7
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periodical Publisher
Irish Folk Song Society
periodical Editor
[Periodical]
periodical Title
Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society
volume Number
4
issue Content
123The words NI fhanann fuaim ag rintibh ( The seals now make no sound ) inthe third line of verse six call for soi ie explanation. A silnilar reference in the songAn Gamhain Geal Ban collected by Mr. Freeman provides tile occasion forinteresting notes in the Journal of the Folk Song Society (Vol. VI., pp. 249 and 263),-wherein iustances are given of the attribution in Celtic folklore of certain humanharacteristim to seals, such, as the power of making music and the capacity ofbeing attracted by it. Further information on this subject is provided in thefollowing notes by Dr. Douglas Hyde and Professor ORahill -y.D. J. 0S.It sometimes happens that in certain conditions there appears a closeresemblance between a swimming seal and a swimming man. This may haveiverj rise to the belief in the kinship of certain hUman families to the seal family.Readers of Sharps (Fiona Macleods) Sin Eater will be sure to remember theweirdest and to my thinking the best of his short stories, those of the Mac Cannafamily, who were related to the seals, Mac Canna is eventually killed by a greatbull seal.John ODonovan in a note to his edition of Roderic OFlahertys Iai -Connacht,p. 27, refers to the well known fat that the Clan Coneely (Mac Conghaile), an oldfamily of Western Connacht, are believed at some distant period of time to havebeen metamorphosed into seals. In some places, writes ODonova ,i, the story- has its believers, who would no more kill a seal or eat of a slaughtered one than theywould of a human Coneely, and he adds that this story had caused, as was commonlyrelated, several of the clan to change their name to Connolly.In an early book- by Pfldraig O Conaire, now Out of print, there is a graphic1escription of a man who had lost his sight fancying himself at sea once more.He and an old boatman are giving rein to their imaginations in the workhouse andactually bring themselves to believe that they are free and sailing over the saltwaves oace again. Is that a seal out in front of us? said Pidin,I amtranslating the Irish It is a seal, by my soul, said the other man. If only Ihad a gun. A gun for what? said Pidin. To shoot the seal, man, what-else? Pidin threw away the rope which he had in his hand. He took hishand off the back of the helm, as he imagined, and crossed himself. God save-us, said he, and youd say that to a man of the Coneelys, in the same boat withyou? I would; I wouldnt care who was in it. If you were to rIo that, Idbe leathering you with this stick till youd have your last drop shed, said Pidin,-and he shaping as for a fight. The Story goes on to tell that when the otherunhappy inmates of the workhouse got round the blind man he explained thatit was incumbent on every man of the Coneely tribe to protect the seals, becausethey were related to one another.See N6a M/arcute Bhig, 1909, p. 4 .There is not infrequent mention of seals in Irish folk song, but nothing verydefinite: In the beautiful Lament of Richard Carrtilloa in the Pet n e Collection(1857, p. 183) these words occur :- Our le guth binn a cinnThig na rinte n bun.i.e., sure it is at the musical voice of her mouth (literally, head) the seals coinsfrom the pool. But I do not know any Irish song which treats the seals ashuman.AN CRA0IBnIN AoIm-i iNN..The Irish folk-tale of the seal-wife, which is mentioned by Mr. Freeman in hisnote, is merely a variant of the Swan-maiden type of folk-tale which is known allover the world. - In thO Irish version, a man walking by the shore sees a brtich (ornrurtieh, otherwise maighdean mhara), i.e., a mermaid wholly human in shape, andsucceeds in capturing her cochall (cap) or brat (cloak), with the result that she followshim home and becomes his wife, and lives with him some years; finally, however,she manages to recover possession of her cochall or brat, and at once returns to thesea. Besides Domhnall O Murchadhas Kerry version, mentioned by Mr. Freeman(p. 263), versions have been published in :(1) Crofton Crokers Fairy Legends ofthe South of Ireland ( The Lady of Gollerus ) (2) Curtins Tales of the Fairies,pp. 150 if.; (3) New York Gad, September, 1901, p. 285, and (4) S(eil UI DhubhdaLe hArd an RI9gh, Gaelic League, 1896. The last is from Co. Mayo, the three othersare from Kerry. - I have noted an unpublished Co. Louth version in the RoyalIrish Academy (MS. 23 E 22, pp. 259, 302). That the mermaid is a seal-woman is made clear in Curtins version; as well as in that of Domhnall () Murchadha.There is a kindred tradition in Kerry that one of the OSheas once snatched her bratfrom the sea-woman of Tonn Time (Tountoma, a sandbank off Glenbeigh); thisis alluded to in an argument in verse between Diarmaid ima Bolgaighe and acontemporary poet, Tadhg Dubh na Cluaise, a version of which was printed inBanba, Vol. II., p. 128 (1903). -The folk-tale usually represents the seal-woman as having children by herhuman husband; and here we have, I think, the origin of the belief that certainfamilies, which vary according to the locality, are related to the seals. In Irelandthe Lees (in Kerry and Coneelys (in Galway are thought to be so related; whilein Uist there is a similar tradition regarding the Mac Codrums (see Poems and Songsof John. McwCodruin, etc., by Rev. A. Macdonald, pp. iv.-vii.). -T. F. OH.
issue Number
18
page Number
7
periodical Author
[Periodical]
issue Publication Date
1967-01-01T00:00:00
allowedRoles
anonymous,guest,friend,member

Journal of the Irish Folk Song Society, Volume 4, Issue 18

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