Words: Irish words Pádraig Pearse; English verses Emer Duffy
Music: traditional arr. Jane Perrott

An Irish song about the pirate queen Gráinne Ní Mháille or Grace O’Malley, adopted as a rebel song with verses by Pádraig Pearse. Ní Mháille did travel to Greenwich Palace to confront Queen Elizabeth; they reputedly spoke in Latin as one spoke no English and the other no Irish.

Our own Emer Duffy wrote some English words so we could teach and perform a bilingual version of this at the Cleggan and Claddaghduff Festival of the Sea 2018. The chorus means “Hooray, welcome home now that summer’s coming.”

’Sé do bheatha, a bhean ba léanmhar,
Do b’ é ár gcreach thú bheith i ngéibheann,
Do dhúiche bhreá i seilbh méirleach,
Is tú díolta leis na Gallaibh.

Óró, sé do bheatha ’bhaile,
Óró, sé do bheatha ’bhaile, 
Óró, sé do bheatha ’bhaile,
Anois ar theacht an tsamhraidh.

Shaved her head with a shiny razor,
Shaved her head with a shiny razor,
Shaved her head with a shiny razor,
Ropes couldn’t snare this sailor.

Spoke in Latin with Queen Lizzy,
Left critics in a tizzy.

Her crews sailed o’er the Irish seas,
For country and for booty.