Welcome to our 15th installment of Weis Center Sessions! Each Friday, we release a video that features a member of the Bucknell University community. Today we feature Jim Van Fleet performing “Mo Ghile Mear” or “My Gallant Hero” on the uilleann pipes.
Jim Van Fleet has been the librarian for science and engineering resources, in the Bertrand Library at Bucknell University, for thirty years. His interest in Irish traditional music pre-dates his library career. The uilleann pipes are a bagpipe design unique to lreland; a bellows provides air to the seven different cane reeds of the chanter, drones, and keyed regulators. The bellows and bag are driven by the elbows, hence the name “uilleann” or elbow in Gaelic.
Mo Ghile Mear, “My Gallant Hero,” is an lrish song originally referring to the failure of the Jacobite rising of 1745,lamenting the exile of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
‘Sé mo laoch, mo Ghile Mear,
‘Sé mo Chaesar, Ghile Mear,
Suan ná séan ní bhfuaireas féin
Ó chuaigh i gcein mo Ghile Mear
He’s my hero, my gallant lad,
He’s my Caesar, gallant lad.
I know no rest, but only sorrows,
Since he went far away, my gallant lad
Recorded at and produced by the Weis Center for the Performing Arts at Bucknell University.
Enjoy!
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Playlist of all Weis Center Sessions here.