Óró, ’Sé do Bheatha ’Bhaile
maluca on 2014-06-27
julietarab, 
florazina
C75 on Wed, 29/01/2025 - 10:46Horo, Welcome Home
- 1. I get pissed off with translations that have "is coming" as if the Irish were "ag teacht" instead of "ar teachd" - see verse 2, line 1, which genuinely has "is coming"
- 2. ie by the English or by the Scandinavians
- 3. a. b. Irish name of Grace O'Malley
- 4. I think the song was written before 1900, and 1924 is the first recorded use of "òglaigh" for "defence forces" or "soldiers" - although use for "volunteers" dates back at least to to 1913; a few hundred years ago it presumbly meant "young heroes" or "young warriors", and probably continued to mean that until it became "volunteers"; but in context here it might as well mean soldiers
- 5. Why are the Spaniards separated from other foreigners here? Probably because only the Spanish, the Scandinavians and the English were seen as enemies of the Gaels in the late 16th century, which is the time the song is about although not the time it was written
michealtIt means that he/she will be happy to receive corrections, suggestions etc about the translation.
If you are proficient in both languages of the language pair, you are welcome to leave your comments.
Translations of covers
Ontano Magico
Sat, 16/02/2019 - 20:24
My analysis here https://terreceltiche.altervista.org/oro-se-do-bheatha-abhaile/
julietarab
Wed, 19/02/2025 - 01:38
Moilleadóir
Fri, 04/07/2025 - 08:55
The use of the loaded English racist word “wog” is totally uncalled for and unnecessary here, not to mention misleading. For example, in Australia, this word means someone of Mediterranean descent. The Irish word Gall, means someone foreign, not a Gael, sometimes even being used to mean someone who doesn’t speak Irish. It doesn’t align with the English term at all and is simply a bad translation. “Foreigner” is the usual translation.
It’s not clear to me exactly when Pádraig Pearse wrote the modern version of this song, but the word óglach (óclach) meant “warrior” in Old Irish (600–900 AD) and the naming of the Volunteers was meant to evoke that history as was this version of the song, so just translating óglaigh as “warriors” would be the soundest choice. Although, it’s clearly derived from the word óg “young” and it could at a stretch be used in a literary sense to mean a young man, it’s not the normal meaning AT ALL and “lads” is not a good translation.
A bhean ba léanmhar means “O woman who was most woeful” or “most afflicted”, so “Welcome most afflicted of women”.
Géibheann means “bondage”, i ngéibhinn (old dative case) “in bondage”.
In the phrase i seilbh meirleach, the word meirleach is genitive plural (“in possession of thieves”). You could also translate it as “robbers/bandits/villains”.
Díolta leis na Gallaibh means “sold to the foreigners”, not by.
There are also mistakes in the Irish text.
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