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Annotation:Hag with the Money (The)
X:1 T:Hag with the Money, The T:Cailleach an Airgid M:6/8 L:1/8 K:Dmix Adc A2A|AGE G3|Adc A2A|GEA GED| Adc A3|AGE G3|AGE cde|dcA GED:| |:AB^c d2d|fed ed^c|AB^c d^cd|eag ed^c| AB^c d2e|fed efg|age cde|dcA GED:||
HAG WITH THE MONEY, THE (Cailleac an t-Airgiod/Airgid). AKA – "Cailleach an Airgid." AKA and see "Do You Think She'll Marry?," "I was born for sport," "My Brother Tom," "Wealthy Widow (The)." Irish, Air and Double Jig (6/8 time). A Dorian/G Major {'A' part} & D Major/A Dorian {'B' part} (O'Neill): D Major/A Dorian/Mixolydian? (Breathnach, Miller, Moylan): D Mixolydian ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part) {Harker/Rafferty, Taylor, Tubridy}. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (most versions): AABB' (Moylan). The title comes from a song set to the tune, popular especially among Connemara singers (says Mick Conneely). Petrie (Complete Collection, 1905) prints the tune under the title "I was born for sport," noted down from the piper Patrick Coneelly in the year 1845. Breathnach prints the chorus of the song[1] which goes:
Sí mo Mhamó í, sí mo Mhamó í,
Sí mo Mhamó í, cailleach an airgid.
Sí mo Mhamó í, as baile Iorrais Mhóir í
Is chuirfeadh sí cóistí ar bhóithre Chois Fhairrge.
Translated by Paul de Grae as:
She's my granny, she's my granny,
She's my granny, the hag with the money.
She's my granny, from the town of Errismore
And she'd put coaches on the roads of Cois Fhairrge.
"Old Hag's Money," a jig that was entered into the c. 1863-73 music manuscript copybook of Crossmolina, County Mayo, farmer and fiddler Philip Carolan (c. 1839-1910) is a distanced version of "Hag with the Money." See also the related reels "Jenny Picking Cockles/Maggie Picking Cockles" and "Old Slipper Shoe."
- ↑ The entire Irish words to the song can be found in Treoir, vol. 37, No. 4, 2005, p. 27.