Siúil a Ghrá: A Song History

← Back to Browse By Song

"Siúl a ghrá" is one of the alternate titles the Traditional Tune Archive gives for the Irish air it files as "Shule Aroon," in Irish Siúbal a Rún.[1] Siúil is the Irish verb for walking, and both rún and grá can mean a loved one, so either form of the title can be read as "walk, my love."[2][3][4] Indexed as Roud 911, the song is a young woman's lament for a sweetheart who has gone to France as a soldier; several versions pair English verses with a chorus in Irish, though the Ballad Index editors observe that the chorus is often only garbled Irish.[5]

Color photochrom of an elderly woman in a shawl and cap seated at a spinning wheel outdoors

[Irish spinner and spinning wheel. County Galway, Ireland], photochrom, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. Shown for its Irish subject; it has no connection to the song.

The Tune Archive cites P. W. Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909), whose note calls the ballad a favorite all over Ireland and assigns it to the time of the "Wild Geese," when, between 1691 and 1745, young Irishmen left for military service on the Continent, mainly in France.[1][6] That dating is tradition rather than established fact, and sources differ: Rod Stradling, in notes reproduced at Mainly Norfolk, says Joyce was following Gavan Duffy without clear evidence and holds that the song is older still, while the Ballad Index editors find little support in the English texts for a related theory tying it to the Glorious Revolution of 1688.[5][6] Firmer traces come from the 1820s: Jonathan Lighter, cited in the Ballad Index, reports that Bruce Olson found two verses apparently from the song in 1823 correspondence of Sir Walter Scott, and in 1824 Thomas Moore set one of his poems to the tune "Shule Aroon."[5] P. M. Haverty printed the air in the second volume of One Hundred Irish Airs in 1858.[1] The Ballad Index groups the American "Johnny's Gone for a Soldier," also called "Buttermilk Hill," with the song and lists versions from several regions of the United States and from the Canadian Maritimes and Newfoundland.[5] According to the Tune Archive, the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary later recorded an American adaptation.[1]

Mainly Norfolk's list of recordings includes Elizabeth Cronin's "Shule Aroon," recorded in the 1950s and issued in 1961 on the anthology Songs of Courtship, followed by revival recordings from 1966 to 2020.[6] National Dulcimer Champion Linda Brockinton includes it as a duet, under the title "Come My Love, Siu'l A Ghr'a," in Simply Dulcimer, her book of fingerstyle arrangements of mostly Scottish and Irish classics.[7]

Our books that contain the song "Siúil a Ghrá"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Shule Aroon (2)".
  2. Teanglann.ie (Ó Dónaill, Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla): "siúil".
  3. Teanglann.ie (Ó Dónaill, Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla): "rún".
  4. Teanglann.ie (Ó Dónaill, Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla): "grá".
  5. The Traditional Ballad Index: "Shule Agra (Shool Aroo[n], Buttermilk Hill, Johnny's Gone for a Soldier)".
  6. Mainly Norfolk: "Shule Agra / Johnny Is Gone for a Soldier".
  7. Linda Brockinton: "Simply Dulcimer".
  8. Image: [Irish spinner and spinning wheel. County Galway, Ireland], photochrom, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. Library of Congress.

← Back to Browse By Song