Annotation:Fágamaíd Súd Mar Atá Sé
X:1 T:Jig M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig N:A version of "Fágamaíd Súd Mar Atá Sé" S:James Goodman (1828─1896) music manuscript collection, S:vol. 3, p. 109. Mid-19th century, County Cork F:http://goodman.itma.ie/volume-three#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=112&z=-4280.3351%2C0%2C16736.6702%2C6432 F:at Trinity College Dublin / Irish Traditional Music Archive goodman.itma.ie Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Ador A/G/|EAA AGA|cde fed|cde fed|cAA GED| EAA AGA|cde f2a|ged cAG|A3 A2:| |:f/g/|aaa ggg|fff fed|cde fed|cAA GED| EAA AGA|cde f2a|ged cAG|A3 A2:|]
FAGAMAOID SÚD MAR ATÁ SÉ (Let Us Leave That As It Is). AKA - "Fágaimíd siúd mar atá sé." AKA and see "Barndoor Jig (The)", "Cranbally Farmer (The)," "Darby O'Leary," "First of May (1)," "Galbally Farmer (The)," "Get Up Early," "Let's Leave that Be," "Let us leave that as it is," "Old Barndoor (The)," "Rakes of Kildare," "'Twas on the first of May brave boys," "We will soon have a Devil of a Morning." Irish, Scottish; Jig (6/8 time). A Dorian/Minor (Shields): A Major (O'Neill). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Shields): AAB (O'Neill). The tune is an early set of the double hornpipe "First of May (1)." P.W. Joyce (1873) noted that the song, which has with variants in set in major-to-minor modes, was "well known all over the Munster counties." The melody in its vicissitudes was used for a number of songs, as evidenced by several of the alternate titles, but, as Joyce pointed out, "Nearly all take the name of the air as chorus."
Joyce gives one stanza of the song (which is "full of drollery") in which the 'airy and bold' protagonist philosophises about worldly wealth:--
To quarrel for riches I ne'er was inclined,
For the greatest of misers must leave them behind;
I'll buy a milch cow that will never run dry ... [i.e., a potteen still]
And I'll milk her by twisting her horn; ... [an allusion to the twisting part of the still's worm]
There was old Paddy Murphy had money galore;
And Damer of Shronell had twenty times more; ...[Joyce explains Damer, from Co. Tipperary, was the Crœsus of Munster.
They are now on their backs under nettles and stones,
Agus fágamaoid súd mar atá sé!
Joyce gives the pronunciation of the last line as "Faugameedh shoodh morra thaushay". See also Bayard's (1981) No. 603, a Pennsylvania collected version generically entitled "Old March."
