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Gr​á​inne Mhaol

by Enda Reilly

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about

Long ago before she became a powerful merchant trader, Grace O Malley of Mayo, Ireland is said to have been told as a child that she couldn't sail on the ships of her father's fleet because she had long hair. It would get caught in the rigging. So in an act of defiance she cut off her hair!

"Mhaol" means bald in this context and it's that defiant spirit that is celebrated in this song. In 1916 in the GPO Dublin, Patrick Pearse invoked her name in the words of Óró 'Sé do Bheatha Bhaile as we know it today, so that's the Irish language element you hear in the song.

I wrote Gráinne Mhaol while I was isolating with covid in Ireland. I guess I was invoking the spirit of Ireland through her to bring my strength back!

Available on streaming platforms and Bandcamp on the 28th April and a live video version will be available also.

lyrics

Gráinne Mhaol by Enda Reilly Lyrics

She's a legend Gráinne Mhaol

Before ever she set sail

Her Da said you're goin nowhere

But then she cut off all her hair!


And do you think that Gráinne Mhaol

That first time she set sail

Knew that we would call her name

Everytime we’d fall in pain?


Do you think that she heard Pearse

As he sang her name so fierce?

Did her spirit really rise

Over Anna Liffey skies?


Gráinne Mhaol x4


Do you think she hears us now

As the waves crash on her bow?

If we hold her name in trust

Will her strength come back to us?


Gráinne Mhaol x4


Do you think that Gráinne Mhaol

On the first time she set sail

Knew that we would call her name

Everytime we’d fall in pain.


Gráinne Mhaol x4

She's a legend Gráinne Mhaol

Before ever she set sail

Her Da said you're goin nowhere

But then she cut off all her hair!

credits

released April 27, 2023
Written and recorded etc. by Enda Reilly
The video is a solo acoustic version.

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Enda Reilly Plymouth, Michigan

Folk Singer, Songwriter and guitarist.

Original songs in Irish and English, WB Yeats' poetry and collaborations and sharing Irish culture in the USA through song.

"FIRMLY ROOTED IN THE PAST WITH AN EYE AND EAR FOR THE FUTURE. ....THE REAL DEAL.”
RORY MAKEM
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