03 Cill Aodàin

Cill Aodàin

Raftery the Poet was blind from childhood and spent his life playing tunes on the fiddle, creating and singing songs as he wandered the West of Ireland. Born in Killeden, near Kiltimagh in East Co. Mayo, around 1779, Raftery would lead a nomadic existence, much of it in the Loughrea area of Co. Galway, where he died in 1835. He is buried near Craughwell.

Born Antaine O Raifteri, Raftery the Poet is thought to have been the only survivor among nine siblings who were struck down with smallpox when he was around 6 years of age. Blinded by the disease, Raftery became a servant, perhaps a stable hand, of the local landlord, Taffe of Kiltimagh. He remained in employment there until, it is said, he was thrown out after an acident in which one of the landlord's favourite horses died. Blind, he joined what would certainly have been many others at the time forced to wander the countryside trying to eke out a living by playing music and singing ballads. Of his type, it is often said that he became dependant on the generosity of those hardly better off than himself.

A poet of the people he met and heard about along his travels, Raftery's poetry is about the events of his time and reflect the views of the common people of the West of Ireland. He lived through the 1798 Rebellion and the 1800 Act of Union and would have been acutely aware of landlords (often absentee) charging high rents to pauper tenants. Raftery sang of the activities of those who agitated for reasonable rents and security of tenure for peasant farmers.

Cill Aodáin (traid.)

Anois teacht an earraigh, beidh 'n lá dul chun síneadh
'S tar éis na Féil' Bríde, ardóidh mé mo sheol,
Ó chuir mé 'mo cheann é ní stopfaidh mé choíche
Go seasfaidh mé síos i lár Chontae Mhaigh Eo.
I gClár Chlainne Mhuiris bheas mé an chéad oíche,
'S i mBalla taobh thíos de thosós mé ag ól,
Go Coillte Mach rachad go ndéanfad cuairt mhíos' ann
I bhfogas dhá míle do Bhéal an Áth' Móir

Fágaim le huacht é go n-éiríonn mo chroíse
Mar éiríonn an ghaoth nó mar scaipeann an ceo,
Nuair 'smaoíním ar Cheara nó ar Ghailleang taobh thíos de,
Ar Sceathach a Mhíl' nó ar phlánaí Mhaigh Eo.
Cill Aodáin an baile a bhfásann gach ní ann,
Tá sméara 's sú craobh ann, is meas ar gach sórt,
'S dá mbeinn-se 'mo sheasamh i gceartlár mo dhaoine
D'imeodh an aois díom is bheinn arís óg.

Now coming of the Spring, the day will be lengthening,
And after St.Bridget's Day, I shall raise my sail.
Since it enterest my head I won't stay still
Until I shall stand down in the centre of County Mayo.
In Claremorris I will be for the first night,
And in Balla down below it, I'll begin to drink.
To Kiltimagh I'll go and spend a month's visit there
Two miles cole to Ballina.
I swear to you my heart's uplifted
Like the rising wind or the drifting fog
When I think of Ceara or Gailleang behind it
Of Milebush or the plains of Mayo.
Cill Aodain's the town where everything grows,
There's berries and raspberries, and respect for all
If only I was standing in the midst of my people
The years would roll from me and I'd be young again!