Annotation:Moreen O'Kelly
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MOREEN O'KELLY (Móirín_Ni Chealla). AKA and see "Pilgrimage to Skellig (The)." Irish, Air (9/8 time, "with spirit"). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "On the Great Skellig rock in the Atlantic, off the coast of Kerry, are the ruins of a monastery, to which people at one time went on pilgrimage--and a difficult pilgrimage it was.
The tradition is still kept up in some places, though in an odd form. It is well within my memory that--in the south of Ireland--young persons who should have been married before Ash-Wednesday, but were not, were supposed to set out on pilgrimage to Skelling on Shrove-Tuesday night: but it was all a make-believe. It was usual for a local bard to compose what was called a 'Skellig List'--a jocuse rhyming catalogue of the unmarried men and women of the neighborhood who went on the sorrowful journey--which was circulated on Shrove-Tuesday and for some time after. some of these were witty and amusing; but occasionally they were scurrilous and offensive. They were generally too long for singing; but I remember one which--when I was very young--I heard sung to the following spirited air. It is represented here by a single verse, the only one I remember. The air may be compared with 'Groves of Blackpool (2) (The)' in Petrie's Ancient Music of Ireland. See also "Chalk Sunday" for similar customs.
As young Rory and Moreen were talking,
How Shrove-Tuesday was just drawing near;
For the tenth time he asked her to marry;
But says she:--'Time enough till next year.'
'Then ochone I'm going to Skellig:
O, Moreen, what will I do?
'Tis the woeful road to travel;
And how lonesome I'll be without you!'" ... [Joyce].
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 110, p. 56.
Recorded sources: