04/03/2025
Bidh an Deoch Seo ’n Làimh mo Rùin / May This Drink Be in My Love’s Hand [Òran-gaoil / Love Song]
Here, as splendidly performed by Lexy Campbell (1894–1986; as pictured), a native of , , is a waulking song with a strong Clanranald provenance. There are a few traditions behind the song, one of which says that a daughter of Clanranald was banished to the Isle of for some unspecified reason or she may have landed up there due to an unwanted pregnancy. Many years later she saw her brother’s galley making its way to the Isle of Coll. It was only when she sang the following song that he eventually recognised her. The other version states that Mac Mhic Ailein, the Captain of Clanranald, found out that his daughter was determined to marry a servant, and he thus ordered for her be left on a rock to drown. Maclean of Coll, passing by, rescued her and took her back to his home as a servant. Many years later, her brother who became Captain of Clanranald was invited as a guest to Coll, and who happened to be serving him but his sister. She was requested to sing at the meal and as she sang Mac Mhic Ailein fell in love with her but when she explained that she was his sister he took her back home with him to . In the ensuing conversation, the performer gives a version of this story as well relating that she heard the song from her father and that the words appear in The Gaelic Songster. The performance was captured by Dr John MacInnes on a fieldwork visit to Brae Lochaber in 1969.
Bidh an Deoch Seo ’n Làimh mo Rùin
[Translation below]
Bidh an deoch seo ’n làimh mo rùin,
Deoch-slàinte le Fear an Tùir,
Bidh an deoch seo ’n làimh mo rùin.
Òladh no na òladh càch e,
Bidh mo phàrt-sa aig ceann a’ bhùird.
Bidh an deoch seo…
Bidh an deoch seo ’n làimh mo chridhe
’S a-rithist air ’n làimh mo rùin.
Bidh an deoch seo…
’S ged a tha mi an seo an Cola
B’ e mo thoil a dhol do Rùm.
Bidh an deoch seo…
Agus às an siud a dh’Uibhist
Nam faighinn mo ghuidhe leam.
Bidh an deoch seo…
Chunnas a’ tighinn às stroirm an fhairge
’S coltach làimh dhearg air an stiùir.
Bidh an deoch seo…
’S mura b’ e gur tu mo bhràthair
’S mi nach àicheadh idir thù.
Bidh an deoch seo…
May This Drink Be in My Love’s Hand
May this drink be in my love’s hand
A health to the Laird of the Tower,
May this drink be in my love’s hand.
Whether he or others were drinking it,
My quart will be at the top of the table.
May this drink be in my sweetheart’s hand
And ever again in my love’s hand.
Though I’m here on Coll waiting,
I long to go to Rum.
And from there to Uist
Were I to get my wish.
I saw her in a stormy sea
With a red hand at the helm.
If you were not my brother,
I would not acknowledge you.
May this drink be in my love’s hand
A health to the Laird of the Tower,
May this drink be in my love’s hand.
Recorded by Dr John MacInnes in 1969 from Lexy Campbell (1894–1986) who was born in Glenpean and then moved to Keppoch, Roybridge, Brae Lochaber. She was a housekeeper. The original tape recording is catalogued as SA1969/172/B2 which are available to listen to on Tobar an Dualchais: [http://tobarandualchais.co.uk/en/fullrecord/55447?l=en]; see further John Lorne Campbell (ed.), Songs Remembered in Exile (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1990), pp. 157–61; Helen Creighton and Calum I. M. MacLeod (eds.), Gaelic Songs in Nova Scotia (1965), pp. 208–10; Donald A. Fergusson (ed.), Beyond the Hebrides (Halifax, N.S.: Donald A. Fergusson, 1977), pp. 63–65; Rev. Angus MacDonald and Rev. Archibald MacDonald (eds.), The MacDonald Collection of Gaelic Poetry (Inverness: Northern Counties Publishing Co., 1911), pp. 340–41; Rev. Alexander Maclean Sinclair, ‘A Collection of Gaelic Poems’, Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, vol. XXVI (1905), pp. 236–38; Colm Ó Baoill and Meg Bateman (eds.), Gàir nan Clàrsach / The Harps’ Cry: An Anthology of 17th Century Gaelic Poetry (Edinburgh: Birlinn, 1994), pp. 120–23; Archibald Sinclair (ed.), An t-Òranaiche / The Gaelic Songster (Glasgow: Archibald Sinclair, 1879), pp. 173–74.
