Cumha na Cuimhní: Siúl a Rún
The ongoing legacy of Elizabeth Cronin
The second song of Cumha na Cuimhní, “Siúl a Rún,” weaves together English and Irish—a so-called macaronic song that the sean-nós singer Elizabeth Cronin was renowned for—and is one of a number of macaronic songs that I found entrancing when I first heard Iarla sing. “Siúl a Rún” is a well-known song in Ireland, and I was delighted that it emerged from my discussions with Iarla as a potential piece for this orchestral project.
Cumha na Cuimhní: Song #2, “Siúl a Rún”
- Iarla Ó Lionáird, vocalist
- Contemporaneous, conducted by David Bloom
- Traditional song
- Orchestral setting by Dan Trueman
- Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered by Matt Poirier
The words can be found at the end of this post, after an entrancing essay by Iarla about Cronin and her long-standing influence. All that follows is by Iarla!
Elizabeth Cronin—An Appreciation
In or about 1888 a school inspector remarked upon his visit to the local primary school in Ré na nDoirí in West Cork, that one student in particular stood out, this by virtue of her general intellect and obvious perspicacity. The inspector strongly recommended that this student should be encouraged into the profession of teaching. She was 11 at the time. This story was told to me by my own mother quite recently and is an early description of the character of one Elizabeth Cronin, or Bess as my mother called her aunt and my great aunt, the famed singer to whom I and many others in the world of Irish folk music owe a great debt.
Elizabeth Cronin’s singing is by now revered the world over but hers was a humble beginning, growing up as she did in a materially deprived country straddling the 19th and 20th centuries. Ireland then was emerging from the impoverishments of the great famine and a century of widespread poverty marked by emigration, economic stagnation and poor access to education and employment. One might say with confidence that the industrial revolution had not touched Ireland and in the world in which Elizabeth Cronin grew up life had in some ways become frozen in time—agrarian, slow moving, local and immersed in beliefs and practices comprising an admixture of deeply held Catholic doctrines and a spirituality rooted in age-old folk superstitions. And of course there was the language, which Elizabeth Cronin and communities dotted across the west of Ireland stubbornly clung to against all odds. And so it was with their music and song. In the 19th century collectors had flocked to Ireland knowing that there at least still existed reservoirs of an extant older oral culture which had somehow survived the ravages of modernity. Here the Anthropologist Breandán Ó Madagáin describes the pervasive nature of song in the lives of ordinary people in Ireland at that time through this retelling of a description of daily life in rural Ireland by the collector P.W. Joyce:
There is abundant evidence of its all-pervasive role in nineteenth century Ireland wherever Irish was still spoken. P.W. Joyce described Glenosheen in Co. Limerick, where he grew up in the eighteen thirties, as..
“a home of music and song: they were in the air of the valley; you heard them everywhere - sung, played, whistled; and they were mixed up with people's pastimes, occupations, and daily life.”
Further on in this fascinating essay, Ó Madagáin recounts commentary made by a collector in the West Kerry district of Ballyferriter, Tomás Mac an tSíthigh:
Tomás Mac Síthigh has published recollections which his father had carefully garnered in his youth from named old men of the previous generation, some of whom were married before the Famine; he records:
“You would hear songs and crooning from them as they went from place to place. When working in the fields they used to be crooning and lilting, and when they would stop at the bottom or at the head of the field someone would sing a song. They used often be singing when herding stock. The odd one would be singing walking the road.”
It was into such a musical milieu, a world alive with song, that Elizabeth Cronin arrived on May 29th in 1879, a daughter to a schoolmaster “Seán Maistir Ó h-Iarlaithe who taught in Cúil Aodha and Bárr dÍnse primary schools and her mother Maighréad Ní Thuama of Ré na nDoirí. Eilís (Bess) would not go on to become a teacher, as her father died prematurely and she and her mother moved in with their uncle Tom where she was raised from her teens on a small farm until her marriage to Seán Ó Cróinín of the plantation in Ballymakeera County Cork. From an early age, Bess demonstrated exceptional singing talents, with her first public performance taking place in 1898 at a Feis Ceoil Music Festival held in Macroom, County Cork. Bess amassed an extensive repertoire encompassing traditional songs in both the Irish and English languages. Her remarkable and easeful command of her songs brought her in time to the attention of many folk collectors, and in particular one Seamus Ennis.
Seamus Ennis possessed a remarkable confluence of talents and attributes that rendered him extraordinarily effective in his role as a folk collector. As a highly accomplished musician and singer, proficient in playing traditional Irish instruments like the uilleann pipes, flute, and whistle, he possessed a profound understanding of Irish music. Collecting for both the BBC and the nascent Folklore Commission, this expertise enabled him to forge connections with fellow musicians and singers, appreciating the nuances of diverse regional styles and repertoires. Ennis's ethnographic knowledge complemented his musical prowess. He harboured a keen fascination with Irish folklore and ethnography, and was intimately acquainted with the cultural and historical contexts underpinning the music and songs he collected. This knowledge allowed him to contextualize the material, grasping its significance within the broader cultural landscape. Linguistic dexterity was another asset in Ennis's arsenal. Fluent in both English and Irish, he could communicate effortlessly with musicians, singers, and storytellers across various regions of Ireland. His proficiency in the Irish language proved invaluable, as he could speak each dialect of the Irish language with notable eloquence when collecting songs and stories in Gaeltacht areas, where Irish remained the primary spoken language. He said of his first encounter with Bess Cronin that upon announcing the following: “I am Seamus Ennis from the BBC,” Bess humorously responded: “Sure I don’t care whether your from the ABC but you’re welcome.”
Ennis possessed an innate ability to connect with people, building rapport with the musicians, singers, and storytellers he encountered during his fieldwork. His warm and engaging personality put informants at ease, allowing them to share their knowledge and repertoire freely. He well understood the importance of preserving and respecting cultural heritage and was careful to document the material he collected accurately and ethically, with cultural sensitivity and with sufficient technical expertise to ensure that the recordings he made were of a lasting quality for broadcast and archival purposes. I will report here that as a young lad I myself was lucky to meet him and be awarded a “Duais” prize in the local Oireachtas Na Mumhan competition in the village hall in Cuil Aodha. It remains a treasured memory.
Seamus Ennis’ visitations with Elizabeth Cronin in her home in Ballyvourney would be the beginnings of a fruitful series of encounters whereby he lovingly recorded many of Bess’ songs and stories. Marie Slocombe, as the founder of the BBC Sound Archive, also played a significant role in documenting and preserving Cronin’s songs. Her involvement in Ireland was part of a broader effort by the BBC to capture traditional music across Britain and Ireland. Slocombe's work in Ireland, particularly with Cronin, was crucial in ensuring that these traditional songs were recorded and archived for future generations. In 1947, Slocombe, along with Brian George of the BBC, worked closely with Seamus Ennis to record Cronin’s extensive repertoire. Ennis collected her songs for the Irish Folklore Commission in the mid-1940s and again for the BBC in the early 1950s. His recordings of Cronin were some of the earliest made by the Folklore Commission's mobile unit, but these meetings would also subsequently act as a bridge for the many collectors that followed. And follow they certainly did, some of whom I describe briefly below.
In January 1951, Alan Lomax, the renowned American ethnomusicologist, embarked on a significant field recording expedition in Ireland, accompanied by American singer and actress Robin Roberts. Their mission was to capture and preserve traditional Irish songs and instrumental music using state-of-the-art reel-to-reel tape-recording technology. This trip marked Lomax's first visit to Ireland, and it played a pivotal role in the documentation of Irish folk music. Robin Roberts, who was not only a companion but also an active participant in the recording process, contributed significantly to the project and went on to edit the recordings. During their time in Ireland not only did they record Elizabeth Cronin but, under the guidance of Ennis, they travelled the length and breadth of the country recording many musicians and singers including: from Munster, Seán Eoghain Ó Súilleabháin, Diarmuid Ó Riordáin, Máire Ní Shúilleabháin, Gobnait Ní Chróinín, Peigí Ní Scanláin, Máire Ní Cheocháin, and Mickey Cronin; from Connamara, the Co. Galway singers Colm Ó Caodháin, Meaigí Nic Dhonncha, Beairtle Ó Conaola, Seán Jeaic Mac Donncha, and Seán ’ac Dhonncha; the Co. Galway fiddle players Aggie & Bridie White, flute players Eddie Moloney & Chet Coughlin, and the Ballinakill Ceili Band; the extraordinary Co. Donegal singer Cití Ní Ghallchóir, fiddle player and storyteller Mickey Doherty, and fiddle player and lilter Neillidh Boyle; the singing and uilleann piping of Seamus Ennis and the singer Margaret Barry. The outcome of their efforts was the creation of The New Demesne: Field Recordings Made by Alan Lomax in Ireland 1951, a comprehensive collection that has been released in various formats, including a two-CD set with extensive documentation. These recordings were among the first to be commercially released as part of the Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music series, a groundbreaking initiative at the time.
Lomax noted the many engaging conversations he had with Cronin about her singing life. She spoke about singing at various occasions, such as weddings, parties, and while doing household chores, which provided a deeper insight into the practical contexts of traditional music in daily Irish life. Lomax found these discussions as valuable as the songs themselves, capturing the lived experience behind the music.
An American musician and folklorist, Jean Ritchie and her photographer husband George Pickow collected traditional songs in Ireland during the 1950s and recorded Cronin as part of their efforts to document Irish folk music. Much of their recordings on their field trips was released on the Folkways Collection LP “As I Roved Out” in 1960. On a return visit to the parish of Ballyvourney in West Cork in the early 1990s I had the pleasure of meeting and performing for Ritchie and her husband.
Finally, Diane Hamilton, an American folk music collector who recorded Cronin in the 1955, helped to bring greater attention to Cronin's contributions to Irish traditional music. These collectors, along with Seamus Ennis and Marie Slocombe, played a crucial role in preserving Elizabeth Cronin's vast repertoire of traditional Irish songs, ensuring that her music would be accessible to future generations.
Since early childhood I have been entranced by the singing of my great Aunt Bess Cronin or Auntie Bess as I have always known her to be called. She died quite some years before my birth but from early on her name was frequently mentioned in our kitchen whenever relatives visited, or more likely still when songs or tunes were heard or spoken of. I recall one of our cousins from the Cronin family in the plantation in Ballymakeera bringing a cassette tape to our house with a recording of Bess singing a handful of her songs. I do not remember all of its contents though I am certain it contained the songs “Siúl a Rún” and “I’m Weary From Lying Alone,” two of the songs which Dan Trueman has so skilfully and creatively re-imagined in these recordings with Contemporaneous, now delightfully coming into view. Something about Bess Cronin’s voice is deeply affecting, an honesty perhaps, a playfulness too and of course an intimacy born of the contextual reality in which her musical intelligence and giftedness was nurtured and so richly developed. As with many of her generation, the singing arrives to our hearts and ears in what feels like an unhurried, natural and unselfconscious manner, as though some now rare algorithm were at play. A flow of pure musicality akin perhaps to what one registers when one is in the company of older native speakers of our language—a rarity now. But there is tremendous skill at play in her singing too, gorgeous deployments of ornamentation delivered with consummate subtlety and sophistication, and a timbral fingerprint whose sonority and feel is both age old and yet all her own.
Bess Cronin never did get to become a teacher in the generally understood sense, though her son, Seán Ua Cróinín, went on to become a full-time collector in Co. Cork for the Irish Folklore Commission (1939–65), whilst her second son, Donnacha, was professor of Irish in Our Lady of Mercy Training College, Carysfort, Dublin (1948–77) where I myself studied for my undergraduate degree in Education. Her music, her language and her presence has much to teach us still.
Some useful links:
Colum Sands presents the story of how, in 1947, the Irish Folklore Commission and the BBC established a scheme to seek out and record folk music and stories throughout Ireland. In this delightful program you will hear Bess speak as well as sing.
A blog from the ITMA site on Elizabeth Cronin by her grandson Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín.
A book on her life and music—The Songs of Elizabeth Cronin. Edited by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín.
Siúl a Rún
Oh I wish I were on yonder hill
‘T is there I’d sit and cry my fill
and every tear would turn a mill
‘S go dté tu mo mhuirnín slán (And may you go safely, my darling)
Chorus:
Siúl, siúl siúl a rún (Go, go, go my love)
siúl go socair agus siúl go ciuin (Go quietly and peacefully)
siúl go dti an doras agus ealai liom (Go to the door and flee with me)
'S go dte tu mo mhuirnin slan (And may you go safely my dear)A bhuachaillín aoibhínn alainn óg (My darling sweet young lad)
Ba leathan do chroí, ba dheas do phóg (Wide was your heart , sweet was your kiss)
Mo léan gan mise leat féin go deo (How sad that I will never be with you)
Is go dté tú a mhúirnín slán (And may you go safely my love)
Chorus
I’d sell my rock and sell my reel
I’d sell my only spinning wheel
To buy my love a sword of steel
‘S go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán
Chorus
Ach, chuireadh ar Rí Shéamais ruaig (King James was routed and sent away)
Is d’imigh na géanna leis ar luas (And the Wild Geese went with him at speed)
Is d’imigh mo bhuachaill leo, monuar (And my boy alas with them did go)
Is go dté tú a mhúirnín slán (So may you go safely my love)
Chorus