A Horse Called Spanker (text and recording), Eoghan Ruadh ó Súillebháin, 1769.

The following recording was made after spurning surrounding studio equipment, on a mobile phone in the depths of the night by myself and the stalwart, sly and solid Fintan O'Brien. We had spent the night sating our thirst in the town of Killarney and I gave this recitation a go in the middle of that sultry, soppen night after returning to Trouble or Fortune Studios on High St.

Advertisement for a Horse, attributed to Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súillebháin.

Saturday, the 16th of September, 1769, will be sold or set up for sale, at Skibereen, the robust horse Spanker, property of Thomas O'Donnell, Esq. A strong, staunch, steady, sound, stout, sinewy, safe, serviceable, strapping, supple, swift, smart, sightly, sprightly, spirited, sturdy, shining, sure-footed, sleek, smooth, spunky, well-skinned, sized, and shaped; a sorrel steed of superlative symmetry, styled Spanker, and a snip square-sided, slender-shouldered, smart-sighted, with a small star, and steps singularly stately; free from strain, sprain, spasms, string-halt, stranguary, sciatica, staggers, scaling, solander, surfeit, seams, scouring, strangle, strenuous swelling, soreness, scratches, splint, squint, squirt, scruff, scales, scurp, scars, scabs, scabbed sores, scattering, shuffling, shambling gait or symptoms of sickness of any sort. He is neither stiff-mouthed, shabby-coated, sinew-shrunk, spur-galled, nor saddle-backed, shell-toothed, shaby-coated, surbated, skin-scabbed, short-winded, splay-footed, or shoulder-slipped, and is sound in the sword-point, and stiffle-joint, has neither sick-spleen, sleeping-evil, set-fast, or snaggle-tooth, nor suppression of urine, sand-creaks, swelling-sheath, subcutaneous sores, or shattered hoofs, is not sour, sulky, slow, surly, stubborn, or sullen in temper, neither shy, sly, nor skittish, slow, sluggish, nor stupid. He never slips, stripes, strays, stalks, starts, stops, shakes, swells, snivels, snibbles, snuffles, smarts, stumbles, or stocks in his stall or stable, and scarcely or seldom sweats, has a showy, skittish switch tail or stern, and a safe set of shoes to stride on. He can feed on stubble, sheaf-oats, straw, sedges, and Scotch grass, carries sixteen stone on his stroke with surprising speed over a six-foot sod or stone wall. His sire was the sly, sober Sydus on a sister of Spindle Shanks by Sampson and Sporter, son of Sparkler, who won the Sweepstake and Subscription Plate last season at Sligo. His selling price is sixty-six pounds sixteen shillings and sixpence sterling.

Hibernia, Irish Song of the Pampa

Now two years have pass'd and gone though they like centuries appear 

Since, sad, forlorn, and alone I sail'd from Ireland dear 

though I ne'er may see it more my thoughts long languish o’er, 

Can I forget my childhood home my own loved Hibernia's shore?

 

When standing at my rancho door or riding o'er the pampa plain

I silently long to hear the sweet voices of her labouring swain,  

Though the pampas may have fields as fair and green all o’er

To me there is no soil that yields like my own Hibernia's shore. 

 

I long to see my native groves where oft’ I've chased the bounding hare

And snar'd the woodcock and the doves, listening to the cuckoo's voice so clear, 

Oh! had I but an eagle's wings across the Atlantic I would soar,

I’d think no more of earthly things ‘til safe upon Hibernia's shore. 

 

Oh could I cope with bards of yore I'd proudly write in words sublime

The praises of her fertile shore while life stands in her youthful prime
For when I'm sinking towards the tomb my feeble hand can trace no more
The words I'd write of that dear home my owned loved Hibernia's shore

 

Though there are comforts, beyond La Plata's mouth, where the Indian once did freely roam,

Still I'd forsake the pleasures of the South
for my own dear native home 

Old Erin for thee my heart is weap'd in grief a heart that's Irish to the core


Long may I love the Shamrock Leaf
that grows round Hibernia's shore. 

Filmed on the farm of Fernando Sheridan, a farmer and vet in Juan José Castelli, Chaco, Argentina, where I have been living on and off the past few years.

Fernando’s grandfather emigrated from Ireland in the 1870's and settled in Capilla del Señor, the same town where Hibernia was published in El Monitor de la Campaña (No. 43, 15 April 1872). The song was signed J. J. M. The video is an outtake from the film "The Trackless Wild, Song of A Wandering Tip."