Re: Gaelic lyrics

[Greg Gilligan <Greg@iol.ie>]

btd@cray.com (Bryan Dongray) wrote:
>"Birch, Keith" <BIRCK@msmail.acgs.qld.edu.au> wrote:
>> I, too would be really interested in reading the Gaelic lyrics if someone 
>> could post them
>
>Go check out another of my Kate lyric pages:
>	http://home.cray.com/~btd/kate-bush/song/mnhe.html
>it has two different translations one from the album cover, the
>other from a different source, notice these two sometimes disagree.
>Are there any Gaelic speaking people who can tell us the *real*
>meaning of the lyrics in "Mna Na h'Eireann"?
>
>			Bryan Dongray

The *real meaning* of Mná na hEireann is whatever you want it to be. The 
last verse is more like the translation on the CD cover, the others could 
be taken either way. My Irish isn't great but I would say that the last 
three lines of the song are 

"And there's a woman in Ireland who wears a shirt (night dress) who is 
more beautiful to me than stock (cows)
And she is with another woman who would deafen Baile an Mhaoir and the 
plains of Tír Eoghain,
And I can see no cure for my affliction other than to give up (or to 
escape into the drink."

                   Greg Gilligan