> Cara > Songs > The Cockle Gatherer / ‘S Trusaidh mi na Coilleagan

The Cockle Gatherer / ‘S Trusaidh mi na Coilleagan

[ Roud - ; Marion Macleod, translated to English by Kenneth Macleod]

Daimh sang a puirt à beul (mouth music) medley comprising of the three songs B’fhearr leam fhìn gum beireadh an tè eile, Seallaibh Curraigh Eòghainn and ‘S Trusaidh mi na Coilleagan on their 2018 CD The Rough Bounds.

Cara sang The Cockle Gatherer (‘S Trusaidh mi na Coilleagan) on their 2021 CD Grounded. They noted:

Collected in the Isle of Eigg from Marion Macleod at the turn of the 20^th Century by Marjorie Kennedy Fraser, who tended to change and adapt tunes. It may have come from Barra where cockle gathering was more common. It is typical of the kind of Gaelic work songs, and certainly would have been sung on the shore, but also performed at ceilidhs. It was sung by the children of Eigg on their community buy-out celebration day in 1997.

It has now been re-recorded and sung to the original tune by Gaelic singers and the tune can be found in the Feisean nan Gaidheal song book 1, but it was Fraser’s adapted version which Kim [Edgar] learned as a young child in school, part translated from Gaelic into English by Kenneth Macleod.

Lyrics

Cara sing The Cockle Gatherer (‘S Trusaidh mi na Coilleagan)

I dal a du vil, I dal a du ho ro
I dal a du vil, I dal a du vil

Joy scream o’ seagulls down on the skerry there
Joy scream o’ seagulls while I gather cockles here
Joy scream o’ seagulls on the skerry there
Joy scream o’ seagulls while I gather cockles here

I dal a du vil, I dal a du ho ro
I dal a du vil, blythe I gather cockles here

Laughter of sea-waves down on the skerry there
Laughter of sea-waves while I gather cockles here
Laughter of sea-waves on the skerry there
Laughter of sea-waves while I gather cockles here

I dal a du vil, I dal a du ho ro
I dal a du vil, blythe I gather cockles here
I dal a du vil, I dal a du ho ro
I dal a du vil