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FAMOUS SONGS
many children, and Robin might have been &ie of these. Adair, I may state, is most essentially Irish, and as " old as the hills," or perhaps I should say trees, as the name is de-rived from Diarmaid and Diarmah—the good Dair, the oak—there are other variants, but the meaning and etymology are the same. Adair, therefore, means " of the oak."
The true story of " Eileen Aroon" appears almost word for word in the " Gentleman's Magazine" for 1827, and in " Hardiman's Min-strelsy" of 1831. It is as follows: Carol O'Daly, commonly called " Mac Caomh Insi Cneamha," brother to Donogh More O'Daly, a man of much consequence in Connaught, was one of the most accomplished gentlemen of his time, and particularly excelled in poetry and music. He paid his addresses to Eileen, or Ellen as we should say now, the daughter of a Chieftain named Kavanagh; she was a lovely and amiable young lady who returned his affec-tion, but her friends disapproved of the connec-tion, for, it is believed, political reasons. Carol O'Daly was obliged to leave the country for a time, and her family availed themselves of the opportunity, which his absence afforded, of im-posing upon Eileen a belief in his (supposed) faithlessness, and of his having gone to be mar-35 |
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