'Marbhna Luimni'

pappyodaniel

This song is called Marbhna Luimni or 'Limerick's Lament', I heard it on Miller's Crossing years ago but never knew the title. Does anyone know the history behind it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2YPsfwSPGg

robd55

Off d'internet kiiiiiid

This piece commemorates one of the darkest moments in Irish history. After losing the battle of Aughrim to the English in 1691, the Irish signed the treaty of Limerick, allowing thousands of Irish militiamen followed Patrick Sarsfield to France. It is said that the women who were left on shore waded into the water to catch one last glimpse of their loved ones. The treaty eventually contributed to the institution of the penal laws in 1695, ushering in centuries of strict civil codes imposed on Irish Catholics.

different link

LIMERICK'S LAMENTATION [1]. AKA - "Lament for Limerick." AKA and see "The Clothiers March," "Lochaber No More." Irish, Slow Air (3/2 time). A Mixolydian: A Major. Standard. AABB. The Boys of the Lough identify this beautiful slow air as having a common origin with "Lochaber No More," but remark that no one seems to really know which came first, the Irish or Scottish version. Robin Morton (1976) says the weight of evidence lends credence to the Scots claim, despite O'Neill's seeminglu cogent argument that a tune composed by the 17th century County Cavan harper Myles O'Reilly was the common ancestor of both. The esteemed harper Connellon has also been given credit for the tune.
***
The Irish version derives its title from the siege and fall of the city of Limerick to the English forces of Ginkel in 1691, at the end of the Williamite Wars. The tune is sometimes known as "Sarsfield's Lamentation" from the name of the commander of the Irish forces at Limerick. Flood also dates the melody in Ireland to the year 1691 (Flood, 1906, pg. 173), when the Irish were defeated by the forces of the English monarch William of Orange. Thomas Duffet's lyrics (which had originally been set to "Fortune My Foe") "Since Coelia's my Foe" were translated from Gaelic in 1720 by Dermot O'Conor and adapted to this tune in 1730. The melody first appears in Neales' Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin, 1726), the first real collection of exclusively Irish folk music (Ó Canainn, 1978), and also was printed by Thompson in his Hibernian Muse of 1786. It appears in the Bunting Collection of Irish music (1840). The air has regained some popularity among traditional musicians in the latter 20th century. O'Sullivan (1929) remarks that there is still some controversy about whether the melody is Irish or Scots in origin, however, O'Neill (1913) maintains that the air was played by the pipers of the "Wild Geese," those Irish regiments who fled to France rather than surrender to the English. The melody continued to be played in Irish encampments on the continent, and in 1746 was taught, maintains O'Neill, by one Colonel Fitzgerald to musicians in the Scottish camp before the battle of Culloden. It entered Scottish tradition from this time, though preserved under the title "Lochaber No More."

The above is from ceolas.org dont know if they are the same pieces of music as mardhna luimni is not directly ref'd

linky http://www.ceolas.org/cgi-bin/ht2/ht2-fc2/file=/tunes/fc2/fc.html?isindex=limerick%5C's+lamentation

hope this helps if anyone can provide definitive answers would be of interest to me also.

pappyodaniel

Sound.
It's rather vague all the same.