Karen Matheson with Donald Shaw - Crucán Na bPáiste

(Burial Place of the Children)
Transatlantic Sessions series 3 (2007)
piano: Donald Shaw
fiddles: Aly Bain & Tim O'Brien
slide: Jerry Douglas
whistle & pipes: Ronan Browne
bass: Todd Parks
harp: Catriona McKay
Sorry to have had to cut the final note fade slightly short, but the intro for the next tune set in early.

[@nelly8485]

This is a wonderful song, sung beautifully and it makes me cry but in a good way ! and it proves that music does make this world a better place THANK YOU KAREN

[@fionaphillips3458]

Poignant, beautiful for anyone who has lost someone that they loved...

[@MyPeterdaniel]

This is a painting that has come alive the most beautiful painting I have ever seen in my 70 years of living. Every detail every nuance. I've already played it 30 times and it pulls every heart string in my being!

[@paulmacgilvray8059]

This is beautiful and wonderfully performed music. My only whinge, with ref. to the songs in Gaelic/ Irish is that it would be really great if a translation could be added. I've studied írish and its close relative Scots Gaelic, but without being a native speaker, it's hard to really know the true meaning of a song without a translation.

[@haileyslate9594]

This song is breaking my heart! I love Karen's voice!!

[@cuzinkevin]

That has too be one of the most beautiful songs ever. Karen puts in such feeling in to the song, and how could she fail with backing musicians like that. TS3 fantastic. Tanks Martyn

[@Robinh353]

Lyrics: English Translation For those who have shed a tear listening to this sad song and been privileged to hear the voice of an Angel Broken my heart Lonely my life With my darling child lying here and me tormented It is the end of my world My little red-haired girl Laid out in Crucán na bPáiste She will not see again The dew on the grass Nor the snow in the glens of Maamtrasna No sun on her face No sweet song of the birds Only the cold earth of Crucán na bPáiste

[@kerryevans1562]

Go raibh maith agut

[@HAL-dm1eh]

According to one translator I just read, this song was written by a novelist based on the heroine of a trilogy about the potato blight in Ireland. So many starved they had mass burials, but many did not want mass graves for the children.

[@pictlepict3369]

One of my favourite songs. So beautiful

[@kerryevans1562]

The ultimate song of sadness... If this does not stir your melancholic soul you are Dèad... when Ronan drops in the pipes like a torpedo To take it HOME...

[@lovacoustic]

That gave me the chills. Brilliant!

[@NorthLimitation]

Broken my heart, lonely my life With my darling child lying here and me tormented It is the end of my world, my little red-haired girl Laid out in Crucán na bPáiste

[@xeroxene]

Those pipes at the end.

[@emcpix]

Crucán Na bPáiste Is briste mo chroí Is uaigneach mo shlí Is mo stóirín in a luí is mé cráite 'S é deireadh mo shaol Is mo chailín beag rua Sínte i gCrucán na bPáiste Ni fheicfidh sí arís An drúcht ar an bhféar Nó an sneachta i ngleannta Mhaamtrasna Gan ghrian ar a h-aghaidh Gan ceol binn na n-éan Ach an chré fuar i gCrucán na bPáiste In ainm an Athair Is in ainm an Mhic 'S a Mháithrín atá lán de ghrásta In ainm an Spioraid Naomh Ná fág me beo Is mo áinglín i gCrucán na bPáiste Is buartha na sléibhte Is tá mairg ar an Mask 'S olc mise gan i bheith sábháilte Is an fhad a bhéas mé beo Ní sheasfaidh mé ar fhód Na hÉireann nó i gCrucán na bPáiste In ainm an Athair Is in ainm an Mhic 'S a Mháithrín atá lán de ghrásta In ainm an Spioraid Naomh Ná fág me beo Is mo áinglín i gCrucán na bPáiste Is mo áinglín i gCrucán na bPáiste

[@stephenmacdonald3727]

Your voice is incredible.

[@gordonross1320]

I love this song, but how can I get the Gaelic words.

[@BAC1954]

Hi, what dialect is she using? I found I could follow quite a good deal , [Munster Irish is my own Gaelic] I know she is a Scottish Gael. It is so sad, to loose a child is a pain that won't go away. Moran Thang.

[@michealthomson6892]

The song lyrics were written in about 1997 by Brendan Graham (a very famous Irish songwriter). He was born in Tipperary, so I guess the lyrics conform to the Munster dialect. Karen speaks Argyll Gaelic, but she sings both North Hebridean Gaelic and South Herbridean Gaelic as well as Argyll Gaelic, and has sung in Irish together with Iarla Ó Lionáird and Karan Casey, both of whom are rather famous Munster Irish singers. So my guess is that she sings this song in Munster Irish.

[@michealthomson6892]

But possibly BG wrote it in Connacht dialect, as the song is about events about 180 years ago somewhere near to Maamtrasna, which is in Connacht. The lyrics certainly aren't in Ulster Irish.

[@michealthomson6892]

The difference from Munster dialect may be simply that any consonant next to a narrow vowel will be pronounced as a narrow consonant. It amazes me how many consonants that ought to be narrow are pronounced broad in both Connacht and Munster dialects; the Ulster dialect is rather better in that respect than Connacht or Munster, but even there some narrow consonants somehow turn broad. Probably any Gàidhlig speaker will pronounce all narrow consonants as narrow consonants, but most Irish people will not. And most Gàidhlig speakers will have problems understanding what Irish people say or sing for that reason.

[@Robinh353]

Chorus: In the name of the Father And in the name of the Son And Mother Mary full of grace In the name of the Holy Spirit Don't leave me alive With my little angel in Crucán na bPáiste There is sadness on the mountains Anger on the Mask But much worse am I that didn’t save her And for the time I am alive Never more will I stand In Ireland or in Crucán na bPáiste (Chorus) With my little angel in Crucán na bPáiste

[@maryclarke5242]

truley beautiful singer but put off by her being ashamed to take her husbands name//// what a long way we have come,, i dont .recognise the world we live in now,, and dont want to,,,,,good enough to marry but not good enough to take his name,, .maybe there is more money in using her own .name,, is that true love???? never in a million years,,still i supose at the first bit of .trouble they will divorce ,, this is todays world//////

[@nozecone]

Oh, just go away.

[@michealthomson6892]

Evidently you are not aware that in Scotland female Gaels often do not adopt their husband's surname , and even if they do adopt it they lose it when they die - the name in the church's death record is either their maiden name or both maiden and married names. I'm not sure what current rule is for Anglophones, but 48 years ago I married an Engishwoman in Edinburgh and while we stayed in Scotland her surname on legal documents and bank documents was always "Ward or Thomson" - her maiden surname came first and my surname second. When my job moved us to England she decided not to find a teaching job, and only do jobs that used less of her time partly because the local system couldn''t cope with her name on the Scottish documents and treated anything carrying her legal name as a forgery. My bank was much more sensible - it asked me whether they should change to name on our joint account to fit in with the English system now that we were in England and we agreed that we would do that, and our English lawyer suddenly saw sense when my Scottish lawyer (an absolute dragon) decided that she would explain to him that he was violating British law by refusing to deal with Scottish legal documents. It took her maybe 10 minutes (I suspect that she told him that she would ask the court of session to deal with him, and of course that court would not accept his qualification as a lawyer because he had clearly not studied Scottish law). And suddenly everything was moving fast instead of not moving at all.

[@ralphschon1100]

Seriously. And you think your cranky opinion is worth being published. They've been married for a long time now and have two children. The first bit of trouble must have gone by - still no divorce. Karen must be an exception from all the modern and awfully shallow women who are ashamed to take their husbands names.

[@pzbrawl]

"her being ashamed to take her husbands name" ... no more probable than her husband being ashamed to take her name.

[@philgoff5888]

I just love her. Saw her in a London church couple of years ago, can honestly say it was the best gig I have ever been to.