> Shirley Collins > Songs > Ho-ree, Ho-ro, My Little Wee Girl (A Tiree Love Song)
Ho-ree, Ho-ro, My Little Wee Girl (A Tiree Love Song)
[ Roud - ; Mudcat 10536 ; words Hugh S. Roberton]
Ho-ree, Ho-ro, My Little Wee Girl (A Tiree Love Song) is a traditional Gaelic tune set to English words and arranged by Hugh S. Roberton. It was copyrighted in 1947 and he published it in his songbook Songs of the Isles in 1950.
Shirley Collins recorded Hori-Horo, set to a tune by Andrew Sinclair, in 1959 for her first LP, Sweet England, and in 1964 together with Davy Graham for their album Folk Roots, New Routes. She noted on the first album:
[…] and from Uncle George [came] Hori-Horo, a Hebridean love song that he heard sung by a New Zealand soldier while they were serving in the 8th Army during the Desert Campaign of the Second World War. After the war, he sang this every Boxing Day in Hastings at the big family get-together, along with Lili Marleen which he sang in German, and his party piece, a Hindi song—rapping a tin tray and wrapped in nothing but a towel worn dangerously low, eliciting shrieks of laughter and alarm as it loosened during the performance.
Moira Kennedy sang the Tiree Love Lilt in 1971 on Beltona album Shadows of My Childhood.
Ross Kennedy sang The Tiree Love Song in 2007 on his Greentrax album Scottish Voice and Acoustic Guitar. He noted:
The Tiree Love Song is originally in Gaelic, I can’t remember where I learned the translated version but I am very fond of singing this Hebridean song and pipe air.
Lyrics
Ho-ree, Ho-ro, My Little Wee Girl (A Tiree Love Song) in Songs of the Isles
Chorus (after each verse):
Ho-ree, ho-ro, my little wee girl!
Ho-ree, ho-ro, my fair one!
And will you go with me, my Love
To be my own, my rare one?
Smiling the land! Smiling the sea!
Sweet is the scent of the heather.
Would you were yonder, just you and me,
The two of us together!
All the day long, out at the peat,
Then, by the shore in the gloaming,
Stepping it lightly with dancing feet,
And we together homing.
Laughter o’ love! Singing galore!
Tripping it lightsome and airy:
Could we be asking of life for more,
My own, my darling Mary?
Shirley Collins sings Hori-Horo
Hori-Horo, my bonny young man,
Hori-Horo, my rare one;
And will you come with me, my love,
To be my own, my fair one?
Smiling the land, smiling the sea,
Sweet is the wind in the heather;
Would we were yonder, just you and me,
The two of us together.
(repeat first verse)
Ross Kennedy sings The Tiree Love Song)
Ho-ree, ho-ro, my little wee girl,
Ho-ree, ho-ro, my fair one.
Will ye go away with me
To be my own, my rare one?
Smiling the land, Smiling the sea,
Sweet is the scent o’ the heather.
Would you were yonder, just you and me,
The two of us thegither.
All the day long, out at the peats,
Then, by the shore in the gloaming,
Stepping it lightly with dancing feet,
And then together homing.
Laughter of love, singing galore,
Tripping it lightsome and airy:
Could we be asking of life for more,
My own, my darling Mhairi?