Tomnjjr wrote...
I listened to an old Clancy Brothers album the other night, Clancy Brothers and
Tommy Makem in Concert, and I heard this terrible reactionary anti-choice song.
Now to be fair, this was in the 60's when the word "choice" was not used in
polite conversation. Still, I was shocked. But my question is, "Where is this
River Salya" that the song takes place down by?
The nuns thought us that one. Great song.
The song is a children's street ballad from Dublin and as Ronnie Drew says in the live recording, it gives an idea of the type of kids they had in Dublin. I think weeila weeila waila and River Saile (salya) are nonsense words although the Dublin lads on the group may know of an actual river. I always thought myself that River Saile stood for someplace exotic far away, exotic and yet a place where awful things happened. Like Dublin or anyplace in Ireland I suppose.
Here's the full song... It's pronounced
weelya weelya wallya
down by the river sall-ya
Weile Weile Waile (Down By The River
Saile)
|
The Dubliners performing this in O'Donoghues Pub, Dublin[Featured on Original Dubliners [EMI 07777890652] & originally issued onA Drop of the Hard Stuff [1967, Major Minor - SMLP 3 1967] |
There was an old woman who lived in the woods
A weile weile waile
There was an old woman who lived in the woods
Down by the river Saile
She had a baby three months old
A weile weile waile
She had a baby three months old
Down by the river Saile
She had a penknife long and sharp
A weile weile waile
She had a penknife long and sharp
Down by the river Saile
She stuck the penknife in the baby's heart
A weile weile waile
She stuck the penknife in the baby's heart
Down by the river Saile
Then three loud knocks came a-knockin on the door
A weile weile waile
Then three loud knocks came a-knockin on the door
Down by the river Saile
It was three police men and a man
A weile weile waile
It was three police men and a man
Down by the river Saile
They took her away and put her in a jail
A weile weile waile
They took her away and put her in a jail
Down by the river Saile
They tied a rope around her neck
A weile weile waile
They tied a rope around her neck
Down by the river Saile
They pulled the rope and she got hung
A weile weile waile
They pulled the rope and she got hung
Down by the river Saile
And that was the end of the woman in the wood
A weile weile waile
And that was the end of the baby too
Down by the river Saile
notes:
The River Saile is in fact the
Poddle, one of the fifty-odd rivers of Dublin: it flows mostly underground, passing through the medieval city centre
& underneath Dublin Castle into the Liffey. Where the Castle Gardens are now, there once was a large pool, the Dubh Linn (black pool), believed
to have given Dublin its name.
A note in the Templeogue Telegraph archives explains about the alternate name(s):
The case of the Poddle is unusual, in that the river was apparently referred to in various quite different forms, such as The Sallagh, Sologh or Soulogh. In the late 18th century the name Sallagh appeared in a list of the rivers of Dublin, but because the Poddle was omitted from the list, it was concluded The Sallagh was a valid alternative. A round the same time there were other written references to, for example: “The course of the river Soulagh, vulgarly called the Poddle” and to “The river Soulagh (or Poddle, as commonly called)…” This excited the etymologists who argued that the alternative name of the river suggests that it came the Irish word Salach (dirty or soiled) and cite the English word Slough (a ditch or muddy river), thus connecting it with the English word puddle, meaning a muddy or dirty place.
