An tSeanbhean (The Old Woman)

Audio file
Date recorded: January 31, 1951
Contributor(s): Performer: Keane, Colm; Recordist: Lomax, Alan
Subject(s):
Genre: story song
Culture: Gaelic, Ireland, Irish
Instruments: voice
Setting: Egan's Hotel
Location: Oughterard, County Galway, Ireland
Physical form: Reel to Reel
Tape number: T3293
Track Number: 8
Archive ID: T3293R08
Note: With Gaelic introduction. Alan Lomax (on tape box): "The Old Hag – Two songs dress a man up like a fodder stack and set him to court their widowed mother. He asks how much dowry for her daughter – the spinning wheel goes drowsily. He asks how much for herself – the spinning wheel goes at a lively pace.”
Belongs to: Oughterard 1/51
About the session: Alan Lomax: "Carna, Feenish recorded Colm Keane and Maggie McDonagh in Egan's Hotel, recorded 'true Gaelic songs,' Oughterard, visited Feenish, fell in sea." On box of T3294 Lomax wrote: “Wherever it goes, in any of the four corners of the world, nobody need be ashamed of it. It couldn’t be sung better ‘by his conscience.’” (The reference is unclear.)
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