BADAI NA SCADAN The Herring Boats The crew of the best boat that left Inis Fraoigh Making their way to the place where the herring boats were at anchor On a submerged rock they ended up and they were not rescued alas And my nice fair-haired boy who would play the fiddle and the pipe I have more regard for Eoghan than a score of the men of this world It is he who could provide and his death has greatly saddened the land Poor Macan is sad and so is wee Nora and their daughter And I feel certain that his wife's sorrow will last for a very long time. Feargal, my friend, if you are in Heaven of the Saints Ask the High King for help for them to be found on the shore here below If their bones were found - were it only on the rocks by his father's side That wretched man would be satisfied and his life would be greatly changed I wouldn't like your eye, alas!, to be afflicted and lost to joy Or your youthful white body to be tossed about on top of the waves The oars that you plied you used to bend away back past you Your hand was on the helm and you were expecting to be in heaven soon If you saw Big Eoghan as he searched shores and holes Looking for a sign of the boys who were stolen away out on the wave He walked (sought out) the harbours but he was not likely to find the like there Till news of them was got down at An Iomaire Cam (The Crooked Ridge) -- Translated by Eamonn O Donaill. Badai na Scadan is a song from Donegal which was composed by a grief stricken father whose sons were killed in a shipwreck near Inisfree Island . Their boat crashed on a rock which was usually submerged but suddenly broke water. The entire crew was lost and the distraught father is searching all the local harbours for the bodies of his drowned sons. This version was collected from Maire John McGarvey of Ranafast, Donegal, and it was found in a book called 'Twenty-Five Irish Songs." This song (in Gaelic) appeared on the beautiful "Celtic Requiem" CD (Windham Hill Records 1998) featuring Mary McLaughlin and William Coulter.