Hag with the Money (Dmix)

“Hag with the Money” is tune #721 in O’Neill’s 1850 (1903) and tune #21 in O’Neill’s 1001 (1907).  The title, “Cailleach an Airgead” in Irish, comes from lyrics set to this tune, and the tune is popular in Connemara according Mick Conneely. Petrie (Complete Collection, 1905) prints the tune under the title “I Was Born for Sport,” and writes that he got it from the piper Patrick Coneelly in the year 1845.

Sí mo Mhamó í, sí mo Mhamó í,

Sí mo Mhamó í, cailleach an airgid.

Sí mo Mhamó í, as baile Iorrais Mhóir í

Is chuirfeadh sí cóistí ar bhóithre Chois Fhairrge.

Chorus translated by Paul de Grae:

She’s my granny, she’s my granny,

She’s my granny, the hag with the money.

She’s my granny, from the town of Errismore

And she’d put coaches on the roads of Cois Fhairrge.

Chois Fhairrge is an area northwest of Dingle, co Kerry, and the song is presumably from this area.[1]  It is also, in a sense, the counterpart of “Burnt Old Man” since this song is a cautionary tale about energetic and industrious older women getting mixed up with attractive but covetous younger men. The lyrics are at times clever and at times cruel, such as, “Steamboats can never keep pace with the hag with the money,”  “why would he marry the hag with the money,” and “he’s too young, and he’ll drink up the money,” though they do marry in the end.

Chorus:

D   A  / G     / D  A   / G     / D  A  / G     / D  A   / G   😐

D       /         /            / D  A / D     / D  A  / G  A  / G   😐

Hag with the Money,

Hag with the Money,

[1] A similar phrase Chois Fharraige means pirate sea, and may refer to the coastal road.