Annotation:Troubled Child (The)
X:1 T:Leanbh aimhréidh, An T:Troubled Child, The M:C L:1/8 R:Air B:Joyce – Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909, No. 562) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Ador (3EFG|A2 AB A2 GE|G2A2B2 gf|e2 dB A2B2|A4 G2 AB| c2 BA BAGE|G2A2B2 gf|e2 dB B2A2|A4-A2|| Bd|e2 ef e2d2|{e}g2a2a3g|e2 dB A2B2|A4 G2AB| c2 BA BAGE|G2A2B2 gf|e2 dB B2A2|A4-A2||
TROUBLED CHILD, THE (An leanbh aimhréidh). AKA and see “Peevish Child (The).” Irish, Slow Air (4/4 time). A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "According to Dr. Petrie this beautiful air was composed by Jerome Duigenan, a celebrated Co. Leitrim harper of the eighteenth century (for whom see Bunting: 1840; Pref., p. 77). Petrie does not state where or from whom he obtained his setting (Stanford Petrie, No. 591, ‘The Peevish Child’).” Joyce printed a set he obtained from an 1846 publication by Cork collector William Forde, who had originally noted the tune from Hugh O'Beirne, a professional fiddler from Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, who was described as “a man of exceptional musical taste and culture.” Joyce considered O’Beirne’s version “decidedly better" than the one Petrie collected. The melody also appears in Donal O’Sullivan’s Songs of the Irish, where it is one of four songs in the Suantrai (lullaby or sleep music) section. O’Sullivan prints words that are thought to have originated in County Mayo, which begin:
Chuaidh me go tigh na banaltra
Le tuitim ceo na h-oiche,
‘S ni raibh do chaoimhtheach leap’ aici
Ach a leanbh ban a’ caoine.
D’fhiafraigh me don bhanaltra
Goide ‘bheir ‘on leanbh siorghul;
‘Se duirt si go mba faisean do
Bheith a’ cronan ins an oiche.
The mother stood beside her gate,
On the fields the dew was lying,
No company had she so late
But her little baby crying.
I asked, “What ails the little one?
Why is he always fretting?”
She answered, “When the night draws on
He cries for want of petting.”
Padraigin Ni Uallachain finds the words similar to a Ranfast, County Donegal, song called “An Banaltra,” sung to the air of “Fuigfidh mise an Baile Seo” (recorded by Aodh O’Duibheannaight and by Padraigin Ni Uallachain and Garry O’Briain, both versions for Gael-Linn records).
