Annotation:Bridget O'Malley

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BRIDGET O'MALLEY (Brid Óg Ní Mhaille). AKA and see "Brigid O'Malley," "Donnell O'Daly," "Young Bridie O'Malley." Irish, Air (3/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The original lyrics are in Irish Gaelic. One translation begins:

Oh Bridget O'Malley, you've left my heart shaken,
With a hopeless desolation I'd have you to know;
It's the wonders of admiration your quiet face has taken
And your beauty will haunt me wherever I go.

Peter Kennedy has a somewhat different translation. He recorded the song from Conal O'Donnell in Ranafast, County Donegal, although O'Donnell told Kennedy the song had come from a friend who was a Gaelic teacher in County Mayo. The friend had brought it back with him to Donegal, where it had become very popular. The earliest printed versions is in the Hardebeck manuscripts (1939, Government Publications, M.103, Dublin). See also Joyce's "Brigid O'Malley" and O'Neill's "Lough Sheeling (2)."

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Johnson (The Kitchen Musician No. 5: Mostly Irish Airs), 1985 (revised 2000); p. 9. Kennedy (Folksongs of Britain and Ireland), 1975; No. 27, p. 82.

Recorded sources: Shanachie SHAN-CD79016, Silly Wizard - "So Many Partings" (1990).