On the Town: Love in all its forms and fates was put under the microscope at the launch in Temple Bar this week of Abair Amhrán, a TV series focusing on around 60 Irish songs.
Paschal Cassidy, director of Abair Amhrán, which will be screened on TG4 on Sunday, April 10th, recalled The Flowers of Maherally, sung by Deirdre Ní Chinnéide, as his favourite in the series.
"It's a melancholy song, one of those sad love songs," he said.
UCD molecular biologist and sean-nós singer Róisín Elsafty said the song she sings in the series, Máirín de Barra, "is a sort of love song", in which the man cautions the girl about falling for a stranger. "Seachain an strainséar" ("Avoid the stranger"), he says, while he himself is in a poor state: "I mo luí dom ar mo leaba is ortsa a mbíonn ag smaoineamh" ("Lying on my bed, it's you that I am thinking of)." As his agony continues, he describes his plight: "Do mhairigh tú m'intinn . . . agus d'fhág tú beo dealbh mé" ("I'm killed thinking of you and my peace of mind is gone").
Maggie Breathnach, producer of the eight-part series, said the high point of the recording for her was Liam Ó Maonlaí singing Brídeog Ní Mháille as the sun set over Dublin's rooftops last year.
Deirdre Ní Chinnéide, a composer and singer, who lives on Inis Mór, off Co Galway, also sings this song in Abair Amhrán. "It's about unrequited love," she explained.
Bríd Dooley, an RTÉ archivist who sings with the group, Maigh Seola, explained that the song, An Raicín Álainn (The Little Beautiful Comb) could be construed as a metaphor. In the song, she said, "the woman has lost her comb and she's looking for the man who took it . . . And her hair is a mess". Although there is a Munster version, the group sing the Galway version, she explained. Our curiosity is piqued.
The first in the Abair Amhrán series will be broadcast on TG4 on Sun, Apr 10, at 10pm