The Song Airde Cuan

The song Airde Cuan (sometimes also given as "Árd Tí Cuan" or "Ardí Cuain") is regarded as one of the finest songs in Irish Gaelic. It is an emigrant song about a place near Cushendun, on the North side of Glendun. On this map it lies between Bunavoher and Clady Bridge on the Glendun Road. The song was made by John McCambridge (Seán Mac Ambróis) a native of Mullarts between Cushendun and Cushendall (at the bottom of the map). Recent research has shown that he belonged to a failrly affluent Presbyterian family and ended up working first in tanning leather at Broughshane and later in the timber import business in Larne. He married into the wealthy Dixon family, who house at Dunmurry, Belfast is now part of a public park (Sir Thomas and Lady Dixon Park). John had a passionate interest in the Irish Language which was spoken by most of the natives in the Glens in the mid-19th Century when he composed this. He writes from the perspective of a Glensman who has moved over to Ayrshire, Scotland, from where he can still see the hills of Antrim, and he longs for his home in Glendun, in Airde Cuan.