PS 173 – The Prince’s Salute

Fàilte a’ Phrionnsa

Iseabail Nic Aoidh

Primary Sources

Dow jsobail ni Caoidh / The Stewarts march Dow.35: 40
E Failt’ a Phriunse E.140: 172
D1 Failte Phroinsa / The Princes Salute D1.1: 1
K1 Failte Prionnsa Seumas / Prince James of Wales’s Salute K1.63: 141
SC Failte Prince SC.7

Notes on Gaelic Titles

Fàilte a’ Phrionnsa Failt’ a Phriunse E; Failte Phroinsa / The Princes Salute D1; Failte Prionnsa Seumas / Prince James of Wales’s Salute K1; Failte Prince SC. The Prince’s Salute. MacKay identifies the prince as James Francis Edward Stuart, ‘The Old Pretender’, not Charles Edward Stuart, ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’.

Iseabail Nic Aoidh jsobail ni Caoidh / The Stewarts march Dow; Isabel Nich Kay G; Iseabal Nic Aoidh / Isabel Mackay KB; Isabella… KB index. Isabel MacKay. Gesto and Angus MacKay give this title to Isabel MacKay (PS 32). Dow, however, gives it to The Prince’s Salute (PS 173), for which there is a simple explanation: Fàilte a’ Phrionnsa was the air used for Rob Donn’s song Iseabail Nic Aoidh. The words are set to the tune in A. Gunn and M. Mac Pharlain, Orain agus Dain le Rob Donn MacAoidh, Iain MacAoidh, Glasgow (1899), p. 88 and Calum Beaton sings a short excerpt below (1970). As the song describes a single girl, Ian Grimble dates it to ‘sometime between the winter of 1745 and 1747 when Isabel married’ (I. Grimble, The World of Rob Donn (1979, rev. 1999), pp. 37 and 89). Dow’s second title, ‘The Stewarts march’, possibly reflects uncertainty over whether it was a salute to the exiled Prince of Wales or to his son, Bonnie Prince Charlie.