Eileen Aroon Lyrics

Song Details

🎶Composer (Tune): Traditional Irish Air

☘  Irish Lyrics: Traditional (folklore attribution to Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh)

✍️ English Adaptation: Gerald Griffin (1803–1840).

📝 The Story Behind the Song:

Eileen Aroon (Irish: Eibhlín a Rún, meaning Eileen, my treasure / my darling) is widely regarded as one of the oldest traceable Irish harp airs, with roots reaching back to the 14th–15th century.

According to long‑standing tradition, the song was composed by the harper‑poet Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh (Carroll O’Daly), who fell in love with Eibhlín Kavanagh, daughter of a noble family in County Wexford.

• Eibhlín was betrothed to another man.
• Cearbhall arrived at the wedding feast as a harper hired to play.
• He saw the bride, fell instantly in love, and performed the song to woo her.
• Eibhlín was so moved that she eloped with him that very night, leaving her arranged marriage behind.

This romantic elopement tale became part of Irish folklore and was retold for centuries.

⌛How Old Is the Song?

The tune is considered one of the oldest in the Irish harp repertoire, with claims that it dates to around 1386 and was composed by an O’Daly (Ó Dálaigh) harper of that era.

• Multiple poets named Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh lived between the 13th and 17th centuries.
• The surviving song is likely a folk combination of versions from several centuries.

Regardless of exact authorship, it is unquestionably ancient and deeply rooted in the Irish bardic tradition.

• Ballad operas (e.g., The Beggar’s Wedding, 1729)
• Harp collections and classical arrangements
• Scottish and Irish tune books
• Later English‑language lyric versions (e.g., Gerald Griffin’s 19th‑century poem which is featured on this page, and is the best‑known English adaptation of the song.)

It remained popular well into the Georgian era, and one of the most popular airs in Ireland in the 1740s.

🍀 Genre: Traditional Irish Folk Song

👥 Covers: The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem, Finbar Furey (instr.), The Selkie Girls, Brona McVittie, Mary O'Hara, The McPeake Family, Jean Redpath, The Shannon Singers, The Corrie Folk Trio, Charlie O'Brien, Diane Taraz, Steve Jones.

🎤 Featured Artists: Fialla - a contemporary Irish traditional band based in Columbus, Ohio. Their name Fialla is a mutation of an old Gaelic word meaning kinship.

💿 Album: A Rare Thing
Released: 17 March 2025
Label: Fialla

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📖 References

1. The Traditional Tune Archive Eileen Aroon arranged for the Harp or PianoForte
2. IrishPage.com Irish & English Lyrics
3. The Wordkern Archive Pop music in the 1740s
4. Internet Archive “Eileen Aroon” by Gerald Griffin — *Lyra Celtica*, pp. 121–122 (1896)