Home

Oxford Ramble

Speed the Plough

Wassail

Jack-in-the-Green

A Taste of Ale

Six for Gold

Knock at the Knocker, Ring at the Bell

The Robber Bird

Three Quarter Time

The 25th


Miscellaneous

Sources

The Sheep are neath the Snow

Wassail track 3

This is an English translation of the Manx song Ny Kirree Fo Niaghtey. The song was collected from John Matt Mylechreest, of Thaloo Hogg, Lonan, on the Isle of Man in 1929, by Mona Douglas. It is her translation which is printed alongside the original Manx in Peter Kennedy's Folksongs of Britain and Ireland.

The following information about the singer and the song was posted on Mudcat:

John Matt Mylechreest of Lonan parish, Isle of Man, was a shepherd crofter. He lived with his sister Christian on a small hill croft, the Thalloo Hogg. John Matt had only one arm, having lost the other in an accident while working in the construction of the Snaefell Mountain railway, but he remained active and capable. After his sister died, john Matt lived alone and looked after himself till well into his eighties. He was a great storyteller and knew quite a few songs and dances. He knew all the places mentioned in "Ny Kirreee fo niaghtey" and would tell how the song was "made on" Nicholas Colcheragh, or 'Raby' as he was called, " before the Murrays [the Dukes of Atholl] came to Mann", by a young man living in Raby who was a wonderful singer and fiddler, and how after the great storm and the loss of his flocks Raby himself died, so the tale went. John himself had worked for most of his life all around Raby, and had lived for a time at the Laggan Agneash, a croft at the foot of Snaefell.

Unlike some Manx songs which are sung in both English-language and Manx variants, "Ny Kirreeeā€¦" is always sung in Manx.