Primary Sources
D1 Suihel Shemes / Lament for King James’ Departure D1.17: 89
K3 Cumha Righ Seumas / King James’s Lament K3.11: 83
KS Suibhel Sheumais / James’s Departure…KS.7: 13
Notes on Gaelic Titles
Cumha Rìgh Seumas. Lament for King James.
Siubhal Sheumais Suihel Shemes / Lament for King James’ Departure or Flight D1 (first edition [c. 1820]) / Lament for King James’ Departure D1 (revised edition [1822]); Cumha Righ Seumas / King James’s Lament K3; Suibhel Sheumais / James’s Departure…KS. The Departure of [King] James. The earlier Gaelic names have no reference to a king, nor necessarily to a departure, since in some dialects at least, siubhal can be a euphemism for death. However Donald MacDonald’s (D1) words ‘or flight’, albeit subsequently deleted, are consistent with the tune being associated with the events of 1688.
Archive Recording
1985 Unknown
(Unknown) Pipe Major Robert Urquhart Brown MBE
In Donegal, where the premature departure of James from the Battlefield of the Boyne preceeded the overall defeat of the Jacobites, he is known as ‘Seumas na Caca’. This raises the possibility that ‘Siubhal Sheamuis’ may not have been a lament, originally.