So...I was listening to Planxty's rendition of the Sean nos song, "Bean Phaidin". These are the lyrics I found for the first line:

‘Sé an trua ghear nach mise, nach mise

It’s my bitter sorrow that I am not, that I am not

'Sé an truaigh nach mise bean Pháidín

It's my sorrow that I am not...

..anyway, my question is - aside from not fitting with the rhythm of the song, why is 'ghear' written in the lyrics but not sung by the singer? If that makes sense? I see this a lot in music sung in Irish (and Gadhlig for that matter) - there are words that the singer sings that aren't in the lyrics or, more often, words in the lyrics that the singer doesn't sing. Is this common?

Sorry for the dumb question, I'm totally new to tackling An Gaelige na hEireann and I'm really coming at it from the point of view of being fascinated by Irish music sung in Irish.

So, thus goes my first post on Daltai, I suppose!

Fáilte isteach.

Probably just a mistake! The sleeve note person working from a different version that teh singer.

Tá dhá thaobh de gach scéal agus dhá leaagan déag de gach amhrán!


BTW, you only need one definite article, thus An Ghaeilge, but Gaeilge na hÉireann.

What does 'ghear' mean - I tried looking it up in the online dictionary I have and no dice.

'Sé an trua ghéar

'Se = abbreviated form of "it is"

an = the

trua = sorrow

géar = bitter

But when géar is used to modify a feminine noun, like trua, then an "h" is inserted right after the "g."

So, literally 'Sé an trua ghéar = it's the bitter sorrow

This insertion of an "h" after the leading consonant is called lenition. It doesn't happen for all leading consonants, but in this case with "g" it does.

I think that's correct, please wait for corrections. I'd like to suggest that when looking up words in a dictionary, you'll often find that removing the "h" after a leading consonant will lead to more finds than not.

Yes, lenition of the leading 'g' consonant would mean that in pronouncation a phrase like 'an trua ghéar' would be run together and sound something like 'trooyare'. To someone not familiar with the spoken Irish it could sound as if the word 'ghéar' had been left out.

Seanfhear