Diarmuid Breatnach
(Reading time: mins.)
It is well known that many Irish patriotic songs contain a figure metaphorically representing Ireland, usually a woman, very often young and beautiful though sometimes elderly.1 But unusually, in one such song the metaphor is a species of cow.
A woman is understandable, of course, after all the land and the nation are of feminine gender in Irish.2 But a cow? Well, perhaps, however strange, it reflects the values of a largely pastoral society as Ireland’s was during the early centuries of its invasion and gradual conquering by England?
Perhaps – but there is a strange modern story there too, of which more later.
THE SONG
The song in question is An Droimeann Donn Dílis,3 thought to date from the early 1700s (i.e. early 18th Century). In the first of three short verses that have come down to us, the singer addresses the cow, asking where s/he goes at night and where remains during the day.
The Droimeann replies that s/he is in the woods with her/his boy (herder) but that he left her/him in tears. She seems to go on to speak in completely unbovine terms of lacking a domain, wines, music, educated company, drinking only water while her/his enemies enjoy whisky and wine.
The speaker has become a person. Were s/he free to do so and gain sight of the Crown, s/he says, s/he would thrash the English as one might an old shoe, through hill, through cliffs and dark foggy glens and that’s how s/he would woo or please his/her fair young Droimeann (i.e Ireland).
It is not difficult to decipher the meaning. The man4 has been deprived of his lifestyle and patrimony, physical and cultural, social interaction and is now living in primitive conditions, in hiding even in the woods. Who was he and what was his position? Who dislodged him?
The details of the song indicates he was victim of one of the English campaigns of occupation of Ireland and dispossession of the native Irish, while its assumed timing places it in the aftermath of the Williamite War (1689-1691) and the final defeat of the remains of the Gaelic Order.5
But it could just as easily refer to Oliver Cromwell’s military and land confiscation campaign of 1649-16536 for the English Parliament, or to English Queen Elizabeth I’s Plantation of Munster in 1586, confiscating roughly 300,000 to 500,000 acres of land to bring in English settlers.7
And in relation to the latter, there seems to be a Munster connection in the song also, of which more later also.
The Gaelic Order is often described as a ‘pre-feudal’ social and political organisation of Irish society, with a political and social elite in ownership of sections of land for their clan, along with the herds upon them, but an ownership that implied management, dispensation and allocation.8
The ‘freemen’9 were allocated cattle by the elite, to whom they were obliged to repay in kine and dairy products and to render military service when required. The ‘freemen’ in turn took on others to help manage the herds and milking, making cheeses etc.
Rule and social order was not arbitrary but was regulated not only by custom but by the codified Brehon Laws and in more ancient and pre-Christian times in Ireland interpreted by a branch of the Druidic Order.
The removal of the Gaelic Order elite by death, imprisonment, banishment or exile meant the removal of Irish society’s political and cultural leadership, for it was they who organised the economy, made alliances, gave leadership and also patronised poets, musicians and scholars.
The human narrator in An Droimeann Donn Dílis is well aware of the source of his ills (the English conquest) and of the need to defeat it in arms throughout Ireland.
A Dhruimfhionn Donn Dílis, a shíoda na mbó
Cá ngabhann tú san oíche, is cá mbíonn tú sa ló?
Ó bím-se ar na coillte is mo bhuachaill im’ chomhair
Agus d’fhág sé siúd mise ag sileadh na ndeor.
Níl fearann, níl tígheas agam, níl fíonta na ceol;
Níl flathaibh im’ choimhdeacht, níl saoithe ná sló;
Ach ag síor-ól an uisce go minic sa ló,
Agus beathuisce is fíonta ag mo naimhde ar bord.
Dá bhfaighinn-se cead aighnis nó radharc ar an gcoróin,
Sasanaigh do leidhbfinn mar a leidhbfinn sean-bhróg
Tré chnocaibh, tré fhaillte, tré ghleannta dubh-cheo,
Agus siúd mar a bhréagfainn-se mo Dhroimfhionn Donn Óg.
… AND THE COW
But what of the cow? It turns out that the adoption of an Droimeann as a metaphor for Ireland is much more appropriate than we might have imagined, for it is an ancient native Irish breed, though that was not formally recognised until 8 January 2020 following DNA profiling.
The tests showed that it was genetically distinct from other breeds, whether Irish or imported. “Animals may be black, red or roan, but most have a white stripe along the back. In 2020, there were 243 breeding females and 23 breeding males registered.”10
The ‘white stripe’ is indicated in its name, Droimeann, i.e Drom Fhionn: “Fair/ Light-coloured back.” And there are many references to the breed in surviving ancient literature. Today the pronunciation varies from ‘drimunn’ to ‘dromeen’ (approximately).
As for the Munster connection, the breed is particularly associated with the south-west of Ireland. It produces both meat and milk and, being a native breed, it is hardy and thrives on poor quality forage even in winter when most other breeds in Ireland require food brought to them.
Droimeann cattle are know for maturing early and being prolific breeders.
I do not know how the song survived the centuries unless it was orally, in the main, which testifies to the power of its imagery and the retention of the Irish language in the Irish population, the majority of which did not become English-speaking until some time between 1850 and 1870.11
And even then, persisted in being retained as a first language in the Gaeltacht12 areas (despite their continual shrinking) for the following two centuries and undergoing ‘revival’ at least three times during that period. We may be witnessing currently her fourth revival period.
End.
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Footnotes
1The use of young woman to represent Ireland could of course be used to disguise a patriotic song as one about romantic love but also meant that the latter could morph into patriotic song, with perhaps the addition of some lines or verses. We may consider however that there is more than convenience at play here in this interchangeability, some emotional attachment to the land in the poet and presumably among their supportive audience.
2And in a great many parts of the world represented by a goddess. The very name Éire (and Éire-land = Ireland) is thought to derive from a goddess Éiriú, while the goddess Banba (sometimes her sister) also represents Ireland, with her (sometimes sister) Fódla. In poetry and song Ireland has also been represented by female figures Róisín Dubh (in a love song), Caitlín Ní hUallacháin (in a patriotic play) and Gráinne (in myth, legend and song).
3Also spelled Druimfhionn in Irish – The Faithful Brown Droimeann.
4Presumably but not necessarily.
5The Gaelic Order describes an Irish-speaking society of custom and law enduring centuries prior to the English invasion and also in consecutively smaller regions of Ireland for a little over five centuries afterwards.
6Though the native Irish could go ‘to Hell or to Connaught’ accurately reflects the policy it is uncertain whether Cromwell or his officers actually said those words.
7https://www.askaboutireland.ie/learning-zone/secondary-students/history/tudor-ireland/the-plantation-of-munster/
8Clan leaders, petty kings and even ‘High Kings’ were elected, albeit from and by an elite group.
9‘Freemen’ is not a very accurate term, since women could own land under the Gaelic Order and, upon marriage, retained that ownership and, if divorcing, removed what they owned with them.
10The Droimeann Cattle Society was established on 11 September 2016 at a meeting of breeders and others interested in the preservation of the breed. A Droimeann Cattle Herdbook was launched on 22 August 2018. To be eligible for inclusion in the herdbook, all animals will have to be genetically tested, and newborn calves will need to be tested before being eligible for inclusion. By January 2020 there were 243 breeding females and 23 breeding males included in the herdbook.
11The Irish elite after a century of occupation were perforce English-speaking (but most bilingual with Irish too), since the legal system was in French first, then in English. In 1366 the ruling class of England, considering themselves English after three centuries of Norman conquest of Anglo-Saxon England, called their Norman-Irish relatives, ‘the degenerate English’ who had ‘become more Irish than the Irish themselves’ and enacted the Statutes of Kilkenny to halt and reverse their integration into Irish society. By comparison, the Norman English rulers and nobility considered themselves English by 1366, though their culture and language had evolved from a mix of French and Anglo-Saxon roots. King Edward III, who ruled in 1366, spoke English, promoted it in law courts, and identified fully as an English monarch engaged in the Hundred Years’ War against France. The Irish did not become mainly English-speaking until over two centuries of occupation and only then by the incremental use of wars and English-speaking plantations.
12Areas of Ireland where Irish is the first language of the home may be found in, Cos. Meath (Rath Chairn and Baile Ghib), Galway (Conemara), Mayo (various pockets), Donegal (various), Waterford (Rinn), Cork (various), Kerry (Dingle and Iveragh Peninsulas). In addition some families in other areas raise their children with Irish being the language between at least one parent and the children.
Sources
https://irbs.ie/traditional-irish-breeds/droimeann/
and the website of the Droimeann Cattle Society (of which link I am unable to post here for some reason).
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