Mé Féin (1953)
Pádraig Ó Broin, composed in Toronto, Ontario
“Ar maidin inné bhíos ag cantaireacht domh féin san dabhach folcaidh gan meas ar bith ar bhfoclaibh an amhráin. Tharla gurb é amhrán ‘Let Erin Remember.’
Nuair a bhí mé ach cúig bliain d'aois 'toghadh' go Ceanada mé. D'fhásas amach anseo mar is gnách, cé nár Ceanadach ceart mé ná Éireannach ach chomh beag.
Ní raibh an Ghaeilge ag mo mháthair ná ag m'athair - solas Dé ar a n-anamacha - ach amháin corrfhocal: 'slang' mheasas orthu-san le bliantaibh. Rugadh m'athair i nIubhar Chinn Trágha cé go dtáinig sé go dtí Áth Cliath, áit ina rugadh mo mháthair, agus é um deich mbliana d'aois. Bhain mo mháthair, Caitlín Ní Raghallaigh, cláirseach bheag ag an Oireachtas i 1904, ach ní raibh mórán suime i nGaelachas ag mo thuismitheoirí riamh. Agus ní foláir dóibh araon d'oibriú ró-chruaidh i gCeanada greim bia a chur i gceithre strabhais am ar bith bheith acu le haghaidh staidéir a dhéanamh.
Pé ar bith bhí amhránaíocht san teach riamh. B'eadarshon mhaith m'athair, agus thug bean dhea-chroíoch seanphianó dom mháthair. Ar an ábhar sin bhí amhráin mar ‘The West's Awake,’ ‘Minstrel Boy,’ ‘Scots Wha Hae,’ ‘Men of Haelech,’ ‘Wearing of the Green,’ 7rl., ar mo bhéalaibh ó thús. Ina dhiaidh sin is uile casadh an Ghaeilge féin liom - scéal eile é sin - agus fuaireas go raibh fuil Ghaelach ionam agus í beo te fós thar ceann go mbliana faoi réim sibhialtachta na nGall.”
“Yesterday morning I was singing to myself in the bathtub and without thinking at all about the words of the song. It happened that it was the song ‘Let Erin Remember.’
When I was but five years old I was ‘chosen’ to go to Canada. I grew up out here as is usual, although I wasn’t a proper Canadian nor an Irishman but only slightly.
My mother and my father didn’t have Irish - the light of God on their souls - but only the odd word: ‘slang’ I thought it was for years. My father was born in Newry, though he came to Dublin, the place where my mother was born, and him around ten years old. My mother, Caitlín Ní Raghallaigh, won on the small harp at the Oireachtas in 1904, but my parents never had much interest in Irish culture. And they both had to work too hard in Canada to put a bite of food into four ugly mouths at any time to be able to do studies.
Whatever, there was always singing in the house. My father was a good baritone, and a kind-hearted woman gave an old piano to my mother. For that matter, songs like ‘The West's Awake,’ ‘Minstrel Boy,’ ‘Scots Wha Hae,’ ‘Men of Haelech,’ ‘Wearing of the Green,’ etc., were on my lips from the start. After all that I met the Irish language - that’s another story - and I discovered I had Gaelic blood in me and it was still hot and alive despite the years under the authority of English civilization.”
Adapted from: Ó Broin, Pádraig. 1953. Teangadóir. 1.2. Cló Chluain Tairbh: Toronto.
For citation, please use: Ó Broin, Pádraig. 1953. “Mise Féin.” Ó Dubhghaill, Dónall. 2024. Na Gaeil san Áit Ró-Fhuar. Gaeltacht an Oileáin Úir: www.gaeilge.ca
