On a separate thread that included a discussion of Nóirín Ní Riain's CD
Caoineadh na Maighdine we discussed the accuracy of the liner notes in regard to whether Nóirín learned over "1,000 traditional songs from an old villager." I e-mailed Nóirín and asked her about the liner notes and, with her permission, here is posted her response:
quote:An-dheas cloisint uait. Website sounds fascinating and honoured to be included in it! Now I don't know really where that number appeared out of the sky from. It probably goes back to my American distributors. Then when I muse on it, over my 55 years of residency here, I must have in my little head hundreds of songs going around there some off-by-heart but most of them inhabiting the realm of
memory. But recalling my actual repertoire, I would hazard a guess that I could actually sound out about 500 songs at this very minute! Hope this helps and le mor-mheas agus cion ortsa agus Dia leat. Noirin
So, hats off to our resident mathematician and her deductive skills, confirming once again, that the ubiquitous
number-stretching theory strikes again!
