Meal do bhrògan dùbha, Neill

Meal do Bhrògan is an example of Gaelic puirt-a-beul (“poorsht-a-beel”) or mouth music — the name for songs written to accompany dancing. The song is a reel, first recorded in the early 1950s by the School of Scottish Studies, University of Edinburgh, from the singing of Johan MacLeod, known as Seonag Chaluim Sheumais, of the Campbell family of singers and pipers from Greepe on the Isle of Skye. There is no other known source of the song. Other members of the Campbell family, including Na h-Eilthirich (Gaelfonn 4401) and Cliar (‘Gun Tàmh’, Macmeanmna Records) have recorded the song.

The song urges Neil to make good use of his black shoes (presumably out dancing) while his eagle-eyed mother is away.

Traditionally, puirt-a-beul is sung unaccompanied and in unison but the tunes harmonise very well. Frequently they are sung in sequences of three or four, each song leading without a break into the next. This song works well as the second in the following set of four: Tha mi sgith; Meal do bhrògan; An tàilleir mhór; Gaol mo chrìdh-sa Màiri Bhàn (all published by Canasg).