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For Love's Caress ~ a Celtic journey
(1998)

1. For Love's Caress
2. Recurring Dream
3. I Don't Want To Hide
4. Soft Rain
5. The Leaving Of Liverpool
6. The Coast Of Malabar
7. Soaring
8. Danu's Land
9. The Great Silkie Of Sule Skerry
10. Rapture
11. Annie Laurie
12. I Am A Rock
13. Eileen Aroon
14. Anam Chara

1. For Love's Caress
Lyrics & Melody: Maireid Sullivan, 1995
Music: Robert "CASS" McEntee

I gave my heart, I gave my soul to the children
I drew all my love, drew all my time for the children
Still I can hear the yearning cries of all the children in this world

This world - feel it's greatness

The weight of the past bears down on my thoughts
We are daughters of history - mothers of a new world that's dawning
And this great old world can be made new in the name of love's caress

Voices everywhere calling
This world - feel it's greatness
The world - feel this endless vastness

Once-upon-a-time I thought that hindsight
was all I had in this world
But we are willing slaves to only ourselves today
From seekers to finders our souls can tremble - for love's caress

All of the angst we hear it's just well disguised imperfection - sophistication
When we can feel it all
we can reach out for it all forever
Through our eyes, we can make souls tremble - for love's caress

2. Recurring Dream
Lyrics & Melody: Maireid Sullivan, 1994
Music: Andrew Burns

Crystal water still calling to me
The bubbling rock pools, my brothers and me

Fishing for minnow, trout and salmon upstream
Crimson rhododendrons. They colour my dreams

Warm summer gulf stream on the cliffs of the sea
On the prow of the land my spirit joins eternity

And oh - how I still feel that magic in my heart
And oh - how my spirit flies back home again
In my recurring dream, I close my eyes and I realize
I can bring it all back to me

Bluebells and fairies, as we danced through the fields
Down to the Holy Well where the praying women kneel

Sunlit stone farmhouse on the crest of the hill
Smells of horses and stables, saddles, bridles and hay

Gathering of neighbors, harvest threshing feasts
Hiding in the haystacks, so much laughter released

3. I Don't Want to Hide
Lyrics & Melody: Maireid Sullivan, 1994
Music: Andrew Burns

Every time I fall in love, I never let it show
When they fall in love with me
I don't want to know about it

Can I go out with you a-lot
I Like your style
( I don't want to hide)
Can I go out with you a-lot
You make me smile
( I'll put aside my pride)

Let's just leave all that talk about love aside
With you I know that I could feel free
It's not so important where we go
It's how we feel about it on the way
A certain kind of baggage is OK

You know I'd be happy just to be there
just to go with the flow
and see what we can share
You've got to be brave
if it's love that's calling you
Please forgive me
if I seem a little strange
But I can hear my heart calling -- watch out

I like the way you walk
I like the way you talk
the way you wear your hair
And how you think and how you say it
makes me want to know you more
I want to see us cope under pressure
React to strange situations,
how we respond to adventure

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4. Soft Rain
by Saul Roche

Soft Rain - Soft Rain
falling on my fields
Soft Rain - Soft Rain - Soft Rain

It seem so long ago
since first I saw the slow, slow rain
come falling down
With spinners lures and lines
we passed the summer time
and rowed those cliffs around
And the Fishermen beneath their caps would nod
"Sure that's a fine soft day, Thank God"

My father walked
those fields in his time
when he held me by the hand
With horses and with plow
as the seasons would allow
they'd reap and sow the land

I never thought I'd break that chain
but sometimes I can feel the rain
Still in my mind a soft voice calls
where Atlantic washes o'er stone walls

5. The Leaving of Liverpool
Traditional -
Arranged by Maireid Sullivan, Ben Kettlewell, Donnelle Page

Farewell to Prince's landing stage
River Mercy fare thee well
I am bound for California
a place I know right well

So fare thee well my own true love
When I return united we will be
It's not the leaving of Liverpool
that grieves me, but my darling
when I think of thee.

I have shipped on a Yankee sailing ship
Davy Crockett is her name
Burgess is the captain of her
They say she is a floating shame

The sun is on the harbour
Oh how I wish I could remain
for I know it will be a long, long time
before I see you again

6. The Coast of Malabar
Traditional
For my daughter who is far, far away.
Arranged by Maireid Sullivan, Ben Kettlewell, Donnelle Page

Far away across the ocean
underneath that Indian star
there's a dark and lonely maiden
on the coast of Malabar

In the harbor where we anchored
I can see her, shy and sweet
with a bunch of wine red roses
and the wild waves at her feet

O fare thee well, my little dark eyed queen.
Fare thee well, my Indian star.
In my heart you'll live forever
on the coast of Malabar.

"Come to me" I can hear her calling
across the ocean, wild and far
"Come to me, again, and love me"
on the coast of Malabar.

And my thoughts keep ever turning
to that far off distant shore
and the dark eyed girl who loves me
Will I see her ever more?

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7. Soaring
by Maireid Sullivan
, 1992

Soaring high o'er swirling winds
gazing down on our shining globe
hued in the sun, singed with fire
The tilt, lilt, lull of the mind's eye

Sanctuary calls from a far off time
Anchor deep, hope released
riding the tide, compelled to ascend
and leap out with a shimmering soul

Solitude waits for the fullness of time
Unspeakable love, passionate voice
calling out to the sighing earth
to lips, eyes, heart of all I can hold

A poet I'll be, a child, very old
looking afar beyond our time
for innocent hearts, penetrating mind
unfolding the songs of the ages

8. Danu's Land
Lyrics & Melody: Maireid Sullivan. 1993
Music: Robert "Cass" McEntee
, 1995

Danu is the supreme Celtic mother/goddess who has disappeared - out to sea,
under the lake, under the hill (Sidh/Sî mounds), into fairie land,
with all ancient heroic Celts.

Return to your other world lover, Leannan Sî (fairie helper)
Take your magic stars and go
Summon me later, send me a charioteer
Shake your golden cloak around me
But let me not forget you were here

I can't forget your wild ways
banished in deep waters
Or white sea's endless beating
on your shoreless dwelling
Or enchanted music's echo still wailing

Sweet as the voice of angels

Winter misted byways
hide the great fellowship of heroes
Their story's shrouded in mystery
Their truth rings out from childhood memory

Listen for their keening call
In your heart you will hear their song
Hear your own voice, see your own dream
"Come to me" they sing in melodious strain

Live forever deep in Danu's dream
No thine or mine, no sin or pain with the fairie queen
Where courtly lovers awaken from their long trance
Noble warriors unfold their slow dance

Fountain of ancient rivers
Bridge of wings to Danu's land
Passage to her other world her crystal mansion's watery helm
Where shadows never fall
on Tir Na Nog's eternal shining realm

Lover's one and all,
heed her call to exiles end
Where abundance never fails
and the shining guardian's golden rays
bring a white shadow to a sweeter brighter day

9. The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry
Traditional - Melody attributed to James Waters
Arranged by Maireid Sullivan

Silkies are mythical seals who become human on the land

An earthly nouris sits and sings
and "aye" she sings ba lily we'n
"O little ken I my bairn's father,
still less the land where he dwells in"

Then one arose at her bed feet
and a grumly guest I'm sure was he
Saying "Here am I, thy bairn's father
although I be not comely"

"I am a man upon the land
I am a silkie in the sea
And when I'm far frae every strand
my dwelling is in Sule Skerry"

"It was na weel" quo' the maiden, fair
"It was na weel indeed" quo' she
"That the Great Silkie of Sule Skerry
should come and aught a bairn to me"

Now he has taken a purse of gold
and he has put it upon her knee
Saying "G'e to me my little young son,
and take thee up thy nouris fee"

"It shall come to pass on a summer's day
when the sun shines hot on every stone
That I will take my little young son
and teach him for to swim the foam"

"And thou shalt marry a gunner guid
and a proud gunner I'm sure he'll be
And the very first shot that e'er he shoots
will kill both my young son and me"

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10. Rapture
Lyrics & Melody: Maireid Sullivan, 1995
Music: Robert "CASS" McEntee
Inspired by Irish Poet, John Montague's "A Slow Dance"

Womb of time - bearing down
impelling light - seeking life
Spirit flower - living river
melodies merging - praising glory

Breathless rapture - pressing - primal thought
Weaving the link of fire and air
Hearing - knowing - tracing - an ancient call
Dancing on living sacred ground

Flaming spirit - welding - a ceaseless flow
Carried on spiraling wings
Embracing warmth - arousing call

Cascading thought - pouring down
Visible power - vivid dream
healing hand - relieving pain

Ringing - singing - newborn - purer form
Tuning to higher shapes of sound
Carried on spiraling wings
Weaving the link of fire and air
Dancing on living sacred ground

11. Annie Laurie
Traditional attributed to William Douglas,Scotland 1685
(Second verse revised, and third verse
written, by Lady John Scott 1810-1900
)
Arranged by Maireid Sullivan, Ben Kettlewell, Donelle Page

Maxwellton's braes are bonny
when early fa's the dew
And it's there that Annie Laurie
gave me her promise true

Gave me her promise true
which ne're forgot will be
And for Bonnie Annie Laurie
I would lay me doon and d'e

Her brow is like the snow drift
her neck is like the swan
Her face it is the fairest
that e're the sun shone on

That e'er the sun shone on
an' dark blue is her e'ye
An' for Bonnie Annie Laurie
I would lay me doon and d'e

Like dew on gowan lying
is the fa' o' her fairy feet
And like winds in summer sighing
her voice is low and sweet

Her voice is low and sweet
an' she's a' the world to me
And for Bonnie Annie Laurie
I would lay me doon and d'e

12. I Am A Rock
Lyrics & Melody: Maireid Sullivan, 1995
Music: Robert "Cass" McEntee

I have seen so many things
I have been so many places
Take me back
Take me where I've never been before

Take my heart, shape my soul
Call it anything you want
but keep me to our goal
Now that I have found you

I will never let you go
Take me to the higher limits
Show me everything you know
Take my heart. shape my soul

Call it anything you want
but keep me to our goal
Stones on the ground - I am a rock
Flowers in the field - I am the grass
Let me take you where you've never been before

Stones on the ground - I am a rock

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13. Eileen Aroon
Traditional - (First four verses by
Cearbhaill O' Dalaigh, 14th century)
Arranged by Maireid Sullivan, Ben Kettlewell, Donelle Page

I know a valley fair - Eileen Aroon
I know a cottage there - Eileen Aroon
Far in the valley shade I know a tender maid
Flower of the hazel glade - Eileen Aroon

When like the early rose - Eileen Aroon
beauty in childhood blows - Eileen Aroon
When like a diadem buds blush around the stem
Which is the fairest gem - Eileen Aroon

Is it the laughing eye - Eileen Aroon
Is it the timid sigh - Eileen Aroon
Is it the tender tone soft as the stringed harp's moan
Oh, it is truth alone -- Eileen Aroon

When like the rising day - Eileen Aroon
Love sends his early ray - Eileen Aroon
What makes his dawning glow changeless through joy or woe
Only the constant know - Eileen Aroon

Youth will in time decay - Eileen Aroon
Beauty must fade away - Eileen Aroon
Castles are sacked in war Chieftains are scattered far
Truth is a fixed star - Eileen Aroon

14. Anam Chara, 1996
By Maireid Sullivan

Anam Chara is Irish Gaelic for 'soul friend'
In the Celtic tradition it is believed that when we communicate meaningfully
with one another we become soul friends - our souls blend.

When I awake my dreaming starts
I dream about heavenly luminous beings

I dream I am in it with my eyes open
I dream I am in it with my eyes closed

And when I walk along I dream I take them
into the world with me
To show them the clay that I am shaping

And they think its so exciting
They love this adventure that we're having

Digging in the earth of pain and shaping love
Fragile, delicate, beautiful love
enduring love, eternal love,
perfect love, passionate love, devoted love,
yearning love, true love,
young love, enchanting love, precious love,
sweet love, endearing love,
compassionate love, unconditional love, beloved love,
my beloved love

Anam Chara



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