> Folk Music > Songs > Chuir M’Athair Mise dhan Taigh Charraideach (My Father Sent Me to the House of Sorrow)
Chuir M’Athair Mise dhan Taigh Charraideach
[trad.]
Seonag NicConnoich (Joan MacKenzie) sang the Skye waulking song Chuir M’Athair Mise dhan Taigh Charraideach (My Father Sent Me to the House of Sorrow) in a 1958 recording of the School of Scottish Studies. It was included in 1999 on her eponymous Greentrax Recordings anthology Seonag NicConnoich (Scottish Tradition Series Volume 19). The Gaelic sleeve notes are:
Bhiodh e coltach gur ann o Chorstaidh Rothach à Borr na Sciotaig anns an Eilean Sgitheanach a dh’ionnsaich Seonag an t-òran seo. Tha tòrr shreathan de chumha Sheathain anns a’ chruinneachadh aig Alasdair MacGilleMhìcheil, Ortha nan Gàidheal.
or, as translated by Nicola D’Antuono (thank you very much):
It would appear that Seonag learnt this song from as Ciorstaidh Rothach (Kirsty Munro?) of Borr na Sciotaig on the Isle of Skye. There is quite a series of laments of Seathan in the collection of Alexander Carmichael, Ortha nan Gàidheal (Carmina Gadelica).
Rachel Newton sang Chuir M’Athair Mise dhan Taigh Charraideach in 2016 on The Furrow Collective’s second album, Wild Hog. They commented in their liner notes:
A waulking song from the Isle of Skye. “Chuir M’Athair Mise dhan Taigh Charraideach” is a verse from the lament Seathan, Mac Righ Eireann (Seathan, Son of the King of Ireland), to be found in volume 5 of Alexander Carmichael’s 19th century collection of Hebridean folklore, Ortha nan Gàidheal (Carmina Gadelica). The song’s title translates as “My Father Sent Me to the House of Sorrow”. Rachel learned this version from the singing of Seonag NicConnoich (Joan MacKenzie) on Greentrax Recordings’ Scottish Tradition Series Volume 19. The Scottish Tradition Series features material that was previously held in the archives of the School of Scottish Studies at Edinburgh University.
Lyrics
Rachel Newton sings Chuir M’Athair Mise dhan Taigh Charraideach
Hì rì hùraibhi ó ho
Chuir m’athair mise dhan taigh charraideach
O hì a bhó ró hu ó ho
Chuir m’athair mise dhan taigh charraideach
Hì rì hùraibhi ó ho
’N oidhche sin a rinn e bhanais dhomh
O hì a bhó ró hu ó ho
’N oidhche sin a rinn e bhanais dhomh
Gur truagh a Rìgh nach b’e m’fhalairidh
M’an do bhrist mo làmh an t-aran dhomh
M’an d’rinn mo sgian biadh a ghearradh dhomh.
Sheathain chridhe nan sul socair
Tha do bhàta nochd ’s na portaibh.
Och, ma tha, chaneil i socair
O nach roch thu, ghaoil, na toiseach.