An Brannda Thiar (Whiskey on the Way)

DESCRIPTION: Gaelic. The singer rejects a friend's invitation to his home only because he fears "the sly assaults of Whiskey on the Way." He reviews the evils of alcohol ("it makes the veriest sage a fool") and admits sadly that his daughters can handle the stuff.
AUTHOR: Diarmaid Mac Domhnaill Mhic Fhinghin Chaoil Mhic Charrthaigh (Dermod Mac Domhnall Mac Felix (the Slender) Mac Carthy) (18c) (source: Mangan)
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage drink nonballad children
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OCroinin/Cronin-TheSongsOfElizabethCronin 15, "An Brannda Thiar" (2 texts)
NOTES [80 words]: The description follows the English translation in James Clarence Mangan, The Poets and Poetry of Munster (Dublin: James Duffy and Sons, 1884 ("Digitized by Microsoft"), Fourth Edition, pp. 282-285, "An Brannda (Whiskey on the Way)." - BS
Translator James Clarence Mangan, ironically, knew no Irish, according to Henry Boylan, A Dictionary of Irish Biography, second edition, St. Martin's Press, 1988, pp. 240-241; he took others' literal translations of poetry and versified them.
Last updated in version 5.3
File: OCC015

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography