Gartan Mothers Lullaby

Sleep, oh babe, for the red bee hums
The silent twilight's fall
Aoibheal from the grey rock comes
To wrap the world in thrall
A lyan van oh, my child, my joy
My love and heart's desire
The crickets sing your lullaby
Beside the dying fire

Dusk is drawn and the Green Man's thorn
Is wreathed in rings of fog
Sheevra sails his boat till morn
Upon the starry bog
A lyn van o, the paley moon
Hath brimmed her cusp in dew
And weeps to hear the sad sleep tune
I sing, my love, to you

Sleep, oh babe, for the red bee hums
The silent twilight's fall
Aoibheal from the grey rock comes
To wrap the world in thrall
A lyan van oh, my child, my joy
My love and heart's desire
The crickets sing your lullaby
Beside the dying fire


Gartan Mothers Lullaby / Traditional arrangement by Denise Kelly
This song is taken from the Herbert Hughes collection of “Irish Country Songs”. Gartan is a town in Co. Donegal. It is famous as the birthplace of Columcille (521), who gave the city of Derry its name and who is better known as the founder of a Christian Outpost on the Island of Iona off the West Coast of Scotland. In the second line of verses one and three, “Aoibheal from the grey rock comes…”, Aoibheal is the name of a fairy woman who guards the grey rock – not evil as it may sound on the recording.


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