Bheir Me O -- Anyone Know What Those Words Mean?

Emrys · Post by **Emrys** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:55 am

"Bheir Me O" is the name of a beautiful Scottish love song. Does anyone know what the title words actually mean?

Martin Milner · Post by **Martin Milner** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:06 am

Sad am I?

GaryKelly · Post by **GaryKelly** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:33 am

Oi, beer me!

CHIFF FIPPLE · Post by **CHIFF FIPPLE** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:59 am

Can't give you all of it, but Bheir mean s give/bestow and O since/when/with.
The Me bit who know's
Since you gave me?

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:29 am

I think it's just a bit of lilting, to be honest. There are actual words in there ("bheir" and "bhean," for example), but it doesn't actually make sense when put together.

Redwolf

Post by **Nanohedron** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:37 am

I *think* that bheir can also mean "embrace". There's a song on a Cran album (Music from the Edge of the World) that has the lyrics: 'S a Sheáin Bhán beir orm.. which translates to "Fair Seán, hold me..."

The H in the first example may be lenition or not. Where's Roger O'Keeffe when you need him? Anyway, going to my little Irish tutorial's glossary, beir is translated as " give birth to, lay (eggs)". Hmmm..."Give birth to me, O".....doesn't work. Now the next....

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:15 pm

Nanohedron wrote:Where's Roger O'Keeffe when you need him?

Jumped on this thread because I thought it might answer the question that I've been asking myself for the last 50 years. My excuse is that it's Scots Gaelic, but I still can't make any sense of the few words that I remember. I suggest someone with a little time on their hands checks out Mudcat http://mudcat.org/threads.cfm , where it surely must have come up before.

Roger O'Keeffe · Post by **Roger O'Keeffe** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:25 pm

OK, the missus will kill me for coming home so late from work again, but here's the first thread that I found on it in Mudcathttp://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=31628#957571.

But while the rest of the words make sense, I still don't know what the lines with "bheir mé ó" in them mean - I wonder if it isn't corrupted Scots gaelic and the rest of the words are Irish.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:33 pm

Roger O'Keeffe wrote:OK, the missus will kill me for coming home so late from work again, but here's the first thread that I found on it in Mudcathttp://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=31628#957571.

But while the rest of the words make sense, I still don't know what the lines with "bheir mé ó" in them mean - I wonder if it isn't corrupted Scots gaelic and the rest of the words are Irish.

I'm sticking to my theory that the lines "Bheir me o ro bhean o" (sorry, can't do fadas here) are just lilting. To the best of my knowledge they don't make sense in either Scottish Gaelic or Irish.

Redwolf