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about

(Devine, trad arr Aoife & John Kelly)

lyrics

For your grand-mother,
March the Eighth was not
International Women’s Day
for such days did not exist
on an island that was once
totally out of bounds to women:
sure, even the saint’s sister –
Cannera – could be buried only
in the inter-tidal zone and
not on the island itself.

No, March the Eighth was
Saint Senan’s Day, a day
she would take water from
Tobar Sinean below the tower
that once sheltered holy men
from marauding Norse.
After cleansing well, she incanted
prayers in the echoic vastness
of Teampall Naomh Mhuire.

In 977, Boru slaughtered
Ivar of Limerick to rid the island
of strangers, leaving its rich lands
to be tilled by Brennans,
Hehirs and McMahons,
Scanlans and Melicans,
the last of them fifty years
gone along with the need
for ever-ready river pilots,
folk to light guiding beacons
on baffling, fog-bound nights.

She is with you as you board
the wee ferry that brings
you and yours back to walk
hare-filled fields, scattering
nesting sea pies, flapping
lapwings, stare up at the mighty,
circling height and treasure
those black-white photographs
that flicker as backdrop,
confusing and clarifying
in equal measure, a strangely
familiar guide to the island.

And all the time, as you recall
places and objects, her stories
and never-to-be-betrayed
memories, your fingers pick
the slide she handed your father –
‘Scattery Island’ – ar dtús
‘Sleamhnán Inis Cathaigh’ –
a central link in the ever twisting
labyrinth of the Kelly DNA.

credits

from An Ownerless Corner of Earth, released February 27, 2020
Aoife Kelly, concer na; John Kelly, fiddle

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Francy Devine Howth, Ireland

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