Annotation:Graine Maol (1)

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X:3 T:Granuweal S:Henry Beck flute manuscript (1786) L:1/8 M:3/8 K:Gdor B/c/|def|d/c/B/A/G/^F/|G2G|G2A/B/|cAf| cAG|F2F|F2e|fff|ggg|af/g/a/f/| g2a|fef|d/c/B/A/E/^D/|G2G|G2:| |:((3 d/e/f/)|^GdB|gab|G2G|A2 ((3c/d/e/)|fcA| fga|F2F|F2e|fff|ggg|af/g/s/f/| g2a|fef|d/c/B/A/G/^F/|G2G|G2:|]

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GRAINE M(H)AOL [1] (or "Graine Ua Maille"/"Gráinne Mhaol"/"Granuel"). AKA and see "Grace O'Malley," "Ma Ma Ma," "Granuaile," "Granu Weal" or "Granah Weale" (Englished versions of the Gaelic). Irish, Slow Air (6/8 time). G Dorian (most versions): E Minor (Johnson). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (O'Neill): ABB (Johnson): AABB (Colclough, O'Sullivan/Bunting). 'Granuaile,' explain O'Sullivan (1983) and George-Denis Zimmerman, is a female name which has become yet another allegorical reference to Ireland, at least in the last century, though unlike other female names symbolizing the island Granuaile was a real person. Granuaile (Grana Uile, Granu Weal, Grainu Mhaol or other spellings) was one Grace O'Maly or O'Malley, who lived at Carrick a owly, at an inlet in the bay of Newport, County Mayo, from abut 1530 to 1600.

The name Graine Maol means 'bald Graine', a sobriquet derived from her father when she was a teenager and shaved her head so as to disguise herself to run away to sea. Graine, or Grace, was the daughter and widow of two Irish chiefs in that part of Ireland, freebooters who plundered the coast of the region on sea-raids. At the height of her fame Grace commanded a fleet of galleys and was regarded by the English authorities as a force to be conciliated. Marrying first an O'Flaherty, she later married Sir Richard Bourke, bearing three sons and one daughter by him. Recognising that English influence and might was becoming increasingly threatening to her roving depredations, Grace decided to make her peace with Queen Elizabeth and travelled to England. She gained an audience with the monarch and through an interpreter sought an accommodation. O'Sullivan quotes Anthologia Hibernica, volume II (July 1793):

The Queen, surrounded by her ladies, received her in great state. Grana was introduced in the dress of her country: a long mantle covered her head and body; her hair was gathered on her crown and fastened with a bodkin; her breast was bare, and she had a yellow bodice and petticoat. The court stared at her with surprise at so strange a figure, when one of the ladies perceived that Grace wanted a pocket handkerchief, which was instantly handed to her. After she had used it she threw it into the fire. Another was given her, and she was told by an interpreter that it was to be put in her pocket. Grace felt indignant at this intimation and applying it to her nose threw it into the fire, declaring that in her country they were much cleanlier than to pocket what came from their nostrils. After having made her peace, she returned to Ireland and landed in a little creek near Hoath{Howth}.

Graine's descendants fared well. Her youngest son, Tibbott, was knighted in 1603 and was made the First Viscount of Mayo in 1627. Graine's descendants are primarily traceable through his line. Like their famous ancestor, many of them made an impact on their contemporaries. Her great-great-great-granddaughters, Maria and Elizabeth Gunning, known as "the gorgeous Gunnings," took 18th-century English society by storm with their beauty. One married the Earl of Coventry and then the Duke of Hamilton; the other married the Duke of Argyle (see notes for "Lady Coventry's Minuet" and "Miss Gunning's Fancy").

The alternate title "Ma, Ma, Ma" comes from a peculiar sound the pipes make at intervals during the song, explains the Irish collector Edward Bunting (1840) {O'Neill says: "The sub-title represents certain passages wherein a repeated note reinforced by concords on the regulators produced tones like ma-ma-ma."} O'Sullivan finds the tune in print in several old collections including Cooke's Selection of 21 Irish Airs (1793), O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes (1801-10), volume IV, p. 99, and Stanford-Petrie, No. 1455 (the last two appearances are variations of Cooke's version). Joyce included it in his Old Irish Music and Songs. Words to the melody appear in O'Daly's Poets and Poetry of Munster, volume II, pp. 92-93, and in Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, volume II, p. 143 (which he claims are the original words). Cazden (et al, 1982) notes the title and variants of it may be found associated with a number of different texts and tunes, and that famously it was the Gaelic name for the tune strain "Foggy Dew (2) (The)," although in Bunting's book "Graine Mhaol" and "The Foggy Dew" are different tunes.

The tune was included in American flute player Henry Beck's music manuscript copybook of c. 1786, p. 52 [currently in possession of the Library of Congress].

See also James Morrison's "Granuale Barn Dance" also named for the pirate queen.

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