It was written by Irish-born, English-educated teacher, translator and poet Tomás Ó Flannghaile / Thomas Flannery (1846-1916) (ref).
It was published in the Veritas Hymnal 1972, which described the tune as "traditional" and did not mention the author. This book, and the subsequent hymn-book from John Paul II's visit to Ireland and In Caelo (1999), include only two verses - and this version appears to be widely known and used in Ireland on St Patrick's Day.
However visitors to this website suggested that the original hymn had a different 2nd part to the first verse, with darker meanings. Further searching has yielded:
- This blog, by an Irish Roman Catholic amateur researcher into the saints, which presents the same two verses in text as are used in the hymn books - but includes a hand-lettered piece of sheet music which has the alternative (likely original?) first verse.
- This blog, by Irish Roman Catholic priest and member of the Missionary Society of St Columban, Seán Coyle (tba), shows the hymn with three verses. The two are from the hymn-book, and the third starts with the apparent "original" second half of the first verse It includes an English-language translation by the blog-author.
A visit to the National Library of Ireland is probably needed to work out exactly how many verses Ó Flannghaile's original hymn has, and how they are structured. Until this can happen, the two verses from the Veritas Hymnal are show below, with a corrected translation.
It is set to an un-named traditional Irish tune.
Ainm oirearc gléigeal, solas mór an tsaoil é.
D'fhill le soiscéal grá dúinn d'ainneoin blianta i ngéibheann.
Grá mór Mhac na páirte, d'fhuascail cách ón daorbhruid.
Sléibhte, gleannta máighe, 's bailte mór na hÉireann,
Ghlan sé iad go deo dúinn, míle glóir dár naomh dhil.
Iarrmaid ort, a Phádraig, guí orainne Gaela,
Dia linn lá 'gus oíche 's Pádraig Aspal Éireann.
A bright and splendid name, the great light of the world
The hills, glens and plains and the towns of Ireland
He cleansed them for ever for us
A thousand glories to our beloved saint
We ask you, Patrick, to pray for us, Irish
May God be with us day and night
And Patrick apostle of Ireland.
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Lyrics
Dóchas linn Naomh Pádraig aspal mór na hÉireann,Ainm oirearc gléigeal, solas mór an tsaoil é.
D'fhill le soiscéal grá dúinn d'ainneoin blianta i ngéibheann.
Grá mór Mhac na páirte, d'fhuascail cách ón daorbhruid.
Sléibhte, gleannta máighe, 's bailte mór na hÉireann,
Ghlan sé iad go deo dúinn, míle glóir dár naomh dhil.
Iarrmaid ort, a Phádraig, guí orainne Gaela,
Dia linn lá 'gus oíche 's Pádraig Aspal Éireann.
Translation
St. Patrick is our hope, the great apostle of IrelandA bright and splendid name, the great light of the world
He returned with a gospel of love for us despite years in captivity.
The great love of the Son of the alliance redeemed everyone from tyranny.
The hills, glens and plains and the towns of Ireland
He cleansed them for ever for us
A thousand glories to our beloved saint
We ask you, Patrick, to pray for us, Irish
May God be with us day and night
And Patrick apostle of Ireland.
Nice to listen to is these trying and uncertain times.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful
ReplyDeleteThis hymn is beautiful but I'm sorry that the translation from Irish is heavily incorrect:
ReplyDelete"It was he who defeated the druids
Their hard hearts of no good
Brought down the proud
Through the strength of God our powerful lord"
This is false. In reality the hymn says:
"He returned with a gospel of love for us despite years in captivity.
The great love of the Son of the affection (/ alliance?) redeemed everyone from tyranny."
There is no mention of any victory by St. Patrick over the "druids", whether their heart was either bad or proud. Let's be accurate.
APOLOGIES IF DOUBLE-POSTED...
ReplyDeleteThere are two different versions of the second half of the first verse. One version is more "politically correct" and less harsh on the druids (frowning on cultural colonialism and All That), than the other, which is probably the original half-verse written by Tomás Ó Flannghaile, and reads as follows:
...'sé a choigh na draoithe
Croíthe dúra gan aon mhaith
D'ísligh dream an díomais
Trí neart Dé ár dtréanfhlaith.
That would translate, correctly, as
... It was he who defeated the druids
Their hard hearts of no good
Brought down the proud
Through the strength of God our powerful lord.
The PC version in Irish is
...D'fhill le soiscéal grá dúinn d'ainneoin blianta i ngéibheann.
Grá mór Mhac na páirte, d'fhuascail cách ón daorbhruid.
As Gwen wrote, that translates as
...He returned with a gospel of love for us despite years in captivity.
The great love of the Son of the affection (/ alliance?) redeemed everyone from tyranny.
But I think this sanitized version is a much more recent concoction, similar to Penguin's recent re-writing of Roald Dahl's, of which Francine Prose said in the Guardian of 6 March 2023 "Rewriting Dahl, after his death, is a minimalist version of painting clothes on the bodies in the Sistine chapel". By what authority was the PC version composed?