They were the first people to settle in Ireland.
They had tremendous insight
and hidden knowledge of many things.
They had knowledge
of the future.
They could speak the language of the birds.
They could see as the birds can see from the sky above.
They could look over the whole land.
Sweeney -
was cursed by St. Rénén because he killed one of his clerics.
From a vision he saw in the sky,
he heard the noise of the upcoming battle and fled.
Part of the curse was that he could not endure sharp sounds.
He flew from the scene of battle in a frenzy.
He spent years hopping from tree to tree
for he couldn't set foot on land again.
And, like the birds, he could never again trust humans.
Gloomy this life
to be without a soft bed.
Abode of cold frost.
Roughness of wind driven snow.
Cold, icy wind
shadow of a feeble sun
shelter from a single tree
on the summit of a high plateau.
Very good.
Good work.
We'll do another bit tomorrow.
NOW:
You were all to learn a song from home.
Who will go first?
Darach?
Joseph.
Come up and sing the song you learned at home,
good man.
I know you're dying to sing for us.
Stir yourself.
Well done. Good boy.
Didn't he sing well?
Now, from now on,
when you're singing, open your mouth.
Like this.
Open wide.
Very good.
And sing out every note clearly.
Imagine you had to get a hen's egg into your mouth,
open it up.
Good man. Now, sit down.
This one won't budge.
Neither will this one.
There are loads of periwinkles.
Good lad.
That's it.
Throw it out quick.
Good lad.
Good man.
Now, haul it in.
Haul it in.
That's it.
Good man yourself - that's it.
Use both hands.
Good man.
Do you have it?
- Need a hand? - Maybe.
Hold on.
That was good.
Is it getting the better of you?
I can't do it.
Let's see now.
Hold the potato like so...
Place the potato between your thumb
and the knife like that.
Hold it with two fingers, either side,
and cut through it nice and easy.
Don't do it too hard
or it'll catch your thumb.
See that?
Good man.
Let's see you try that.
Don't be worried.
It'll come with age, child.
Nice and easy, in your own time.
Mind the fingers.
Good man yourself.
Have you many left?
A few.
Joe!
Hey Joe! Stop your carry-on!
For God's sake!
Isn't your father a fine singer?
Would you sing me a song?
I could record your voice with this device.
What do you say?
I only sing at home.
Isn't this your home?
Which songs do you like anyway?
I like “An tAmhrén Bréagach.”
And “Amhrén Rinn Mhaoile.”
“Amhrén Rinn Mhaoile”?
That's quite a difficult song for a young lad, isn't it?
Do you know where they come from?
My dad sings them
and Calm an Bhlécaigh.
And where did they get them?
I suppose they go way back
to the poets who wrote them long ago
but we still sing them.
Now, what would you say to that!
Here you are,
you may as well...
Here, finish it!
May as well finish it!
Throw it back, son.
- We haven't another bottle? - No!
We're ready, Joe.
Micheél Thaidhg bought a new boat recently,
a trawler.
He'll do well around these parts.
You might never come back, Joe.
There's nothing left for me here.
I don't know...
I miss this place...
You always had your eye on the horizon.
I am the age of the Old Hag of Beara.
The age of Newgrange.
The age of the Great Deer.
I have two thousand years of that stinking sow that was Ireland
resonating in my ears
in my mouth
in my eyes
in my head
in my dreams.
These horses, each with the hammer and sickle on their flanks,
they were the horses of the Emir of Bokhara,
they were the Golden Horde,
Genghis Khan's cavalry.
They were also the slender brown horses
in my father's and grandfathers stories.
And who truly knows that they were not?
Do you feel homesick here, Joe?
Sometimes.
Sometimes not.
Why do you feel homesick?
It's hard, leaving your native land and forgetting it.
Have you forgotten it?
That's not what I mean, but forgetting the fun
and the people and the songs
the music and the festivities, the races, things like that.
I'm only here a little under three years.
But I was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966.
But I must say now, and back then too,
that the Clancy Brothers gave me great help in getting those things.
- When you started here? - Yes, when I first started.
Well, we didn't know where he was.
No, the first we'd heard about him,
I was at a Clancy Brothers' concert
and I used to hear Joe talking about the Clancy Brothers
so, I made it a point to meet one of them, which I did,
and asked if he knew Joe and he said,
“Oh yes, very much so, actually he's over in New York, we just left him
to come over here and we're going back there.”
So, I said, “Will you tell him his wife's dead
and to contact his children,”
which he didn't do.
You know that it's never too late, Joe, to go back.
They might be happy to see you.
I know that, I know that...
But I think that too much water has passed under the bridge.
I went to England last year
and met my father.
I was going to write to tell you but I changed my mind.
I hadn't seen him since I was five years old,
you know that.
Myself and my grandmother went over to search for him
and we finally found him.
He was in London.
He plays music himself from time to time.
Do you know what he said to me when we found him?
He said:
“I always knew
that you'd find me.”
Do you know
in all the old stories
why it is that the warrior always kills the beast?
I don't know.
Because it is the warrior who tells the story.
How do you mean?
Sometimes I don't know
if I'm the warrior
or the beast.
There were fish in the rivers of Ireland.
There were animals in her hollows.
Wild, shy, monstrous creatures roamed her plains and forests.
Creatures that one could see through and walk through.
We lived in ease and saw new animals grow
the bear, the badger, the boar, the deer and the wolf.
Then, sudden as a rising wind, between night and morning,
there came a sickness
and on the seventh day, all of the race of Parthalon were dead,
all except one single man.
"I am that man,” his companion affirmed."
Tuan shaded his brow with his hand
and he remembered back through incredible ages
to the beginning of the world
and to the beginning of time in Ireland.
Listen, Méire.
I've a list of songs I haven't yet recorded anywhere
and I believe it would be good to record them.
Look, Méire, I have to find some way out of this country.
I don't want to die amongst strangers.
There are fine people here, but they are not my own people.
If there was some way I could...
Maybe you could ask around and see...
Look, Méire, I'd better go now.
There are people here waiting to use the phone.
We'll talk about it again. Goodbye.
I haven't seen you here before.
How long have you been here?
Seven years.
That's a long time.
I would wait twice as long for a poem.
Have you caught good poems?
The poems I am fit for.
No person can get more than that
for a man's readiness is his limit.
It was foretold by a man of knowledge
that I should receive All Knowledge by the bank of this river.
And then?
And then,
I would have All Knowledge.
And after that?
What should there be after that?
I mean,
what would you do with All Knowledge?
A question
of great weight.
I could answer it if I had All Knowledge, but not until then.
What would you do, young man?
I would make a poem.
I was born at night.
That's why I was always so shy, they said.
My mother told me stories.
My father taught me to sing.
And when I had grown
and had listened to the world's song,
I felt that there could be no greater happiness
than to return to that song.
In song dwelled the most precious
and the most incomprehensible dreams of mankind.
The mountains stretched into the heavens in those days.
The songbirds of the air listened in wonder to this song,
the most beautiful song in life.
Birds don't sing songs of glory.
Ice wrapped wings That's my story