Favorite Song off of Deirdre's New Cd

I have voted for Crucán na bPáiste, a very sad song so beautifully sung by Deirdre.

It takes someone special, with a clear, pure voice to sing this song as it should be sung.

In my opinion this is the most moving song Brendan Graham has ever written, but it won't win him any awards
because it's such a tragic event. Oh....and it's in Irish of course, which is the only language spoken
around Crucán na bPaiste.

He wrote it for the principal character in his trilogy of books:
1) The Whitest Flower
2) The Element of Fire
3) The Brightest Day, The Darkest Night

Her name is Ellen Rua, from East County Mayo.
Crucán na bPáiste means "Burial place of the children".
I know that part of Ireland well......my mother's family home is not far away.
The people of Mayo suffered greatly in the Famine, one third of the population died.
Many more, weakened by the famine, died of fever and dysentery. Babies conceived and born
in this era were malnourished, and often did not live long.

There were so many victims that they were buried in mass graves. However, local people
could not bear the thought of their little ones put in mass graves with everyone else,
so they made a special place... Crucán na bPaiste.

In this lament, Ellen Rua is mourning her "little redheaded girl" lying in the cold ground of Crucán na bPaiste.
She is devastated that she could not save her child, and asks the Lord to take her too.

Translation:

Broken my heart
Lonely my life
With my darling child lying here and me tormented
It is the end of my world
My little red-haired girl
Laid out in Crucán na bPáiste

She will not see again
The dew on the grass
Nor the snow in the glens of Maamtrasna
No sun on her face
No sweet song of the birds
Only the cold earth of Crucán na bPáiste

Chorus:
In the name of the Father
And in the name of the Son
And Mother Mary full of grace
In the name of the Holy Spirit
Don't leave me alive
With my little angel in Crucán na bPáiste

There is sadness on the mountains
Anger on the Mask ( Lough Mask - a lake nearby)
But much worse am I that didn’t save her
And for the time I am alive
Never more will I stand
In Ireland or in Crucán na bPáiste
With my little angel in Crucán na bPáiste

She cannot stay in Ireland without her child....so she leaves on one of the Famine ships to Australia.
Eventually she travels to Boston, to a new life.....but her strength is again tried by tragedy.

Very sad song, I know......but Deirdre sings it so beautifully.

I just played it again.....I could not help thinking of the tragedy of little Caylee Anthony,
the little girl so cruelly murdered, who lived 15 miles from us. The Jury is deliberating right now.

Near Crucán na bPaiste, County Mayo: