Taladh Na Beinne Guirme

Brian Ó hEadhra and Bruce MacGregor perform the song Tàladh Na Beinne Guirme written by Goiridh Dòmhnallach and Brian Ó hEadhra. Goiridh mac Alasdair Dhùghaill (Jeff MacDonald) - I grew up in Kingsville which is in St. Mary of the Angels Parish, a great, Gaelic community in Cape Breton Island. I began learning Gaelic seriously at the age of 19 and was extremely blessed to be able to learn from some of the local tradition-bearers, some of the best in the Cape Breton Gaelic tradition. I come from a very musical family, the MacDonalds of Queensville. The Song A Bheinn Ghorm, the Blue Mountain, runs through Glendale, Kingsville and Queensville and has been a backdrop for our Gaelic way of life there since the first settlers began coming to the area at the end of the 18th century. I was asked by the organizers of the Celtic Colours festival to work with Brian O hEadhra (from Ireland and Scotland) on composing a Gaelic song when he would visit the island in the fall of 2004. This is the result of our collaboration. It lets on that the mountain is telling its story about the arrival, success and decline of Bràigh na h-Aibhneadhs Gaels (Bràigh na h-Aibhneadh is the Gaelic name for our area). The mountain grew to love the people and laments the decline of the Gaelic language and culture there. The mountain will eternally sing its lullaby to its foster-children who slumber in the soil of Bràigh na h-Aibhneadh.