'Gartan Mother's Lullaby' (with lyrics) - UUSGU 5-12-19

Featuring Abigail West (flute), Bob Nicoll (piano) and the UUSGU Choir directed by Barry Hall. From our 2019 Mother's Day service. “Gartan Mother’s Lullaby” (arranged by Neil Ginsberg) is a traditional Irish lullaby, ripe with imagery of figures in Celtic mythology, places in Ireland and words in the Irish language:

Sleep, my child, for the red bee hums the silent twilight falls,
The banshee from the grey rock comes, to wrap the world in thrall.
A leanbhan O, my child, my joy, my own, my heart's desire,
The cricket sings you a lullaby, beside the dying fire.

Dusk is drawn and the Green Man's thorn is wreathed in rings of fog,
Siabhra sails his boat 'til morn, upon the starry bog.
A leanbhan O, the pale half-moon hath brimmed her cusp in dew,
And weeps to hear this sad, sleep tune, I sing, my love, to you.

Gartan is an area in County Donegal, Ireland. A banshee is a ghost-like fairy woman. “Leanbhan” means child. The Green Man is a medieval face with leaves growing out of it that represents the annual cycle of death and rebirth in nature. “Sibhra” (sheevra) is a mischievous type of little fairy people.