The Wexford Carol is a traditional Celtic Christmas thingie. Somewhat obscure, I guess. It’s old, but no one knows exactly how old. The musical director and organist at St. Aidan’s Cathedral in Wexford, Ireland wrote it down after hearing a local singer belting it out. It found a place in The Oxford Book of Carols in 1928, but it might be four or five hundred years older than that.

It’s got lyrics, but God knows what the original lyrics might have been. Things passed down orally through centuries have a tendency to pick up modifications like a ship picks up barnacles. Here are some of the verses:

Good people all, this Christmas time,
Consider well and bear in mind
What our good God for us has done
In sending His beloved Son
With Mary holy we should pray,
To God with love this Christmas Day
In Bethlehem upon that morn,
There was a blessed Messiah born.

The night before that happy tide,
The noble virgin and her guide
Were long time seeking up and down
To find a lodging in the town.
But mark how all things came to pass
From every door repelled, alas,
As was foretold, their refuge all
Was but a humble ox’s stall.

Wikipedia has some Irish lyrics. I put them into a translation thingie. Here’s what came out:

Oh, come all and pray
The child is lying in the cradle
Remember the love of the King
Who gave us salvation tonight the Naí.
And Mary Mother in God’s Paradise,
For Eve’s poor children, pray now tenderly,
The door of the aperture is never closed
May you worship Mac Mhuire Ogh from now on.

In east Bethlehem in the middle of the night’
The good news was heard for shepherds,
Clearly for life from the sky sweetly
Angels were singing from tip to tip.
“Move alive,” said the Angel of God,
“Go to Bethlehem and you will find Him
Don’t lie peacefully in a manger of grass,
He is the Messiah who loved life

The Irish have been confusing and confounding the English since about 1100 AD. Maybe they should have stayed home. I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise that they confuse an English translation machine, too, although that eighth line, that bids the listener to worship Fred MacMurray for some reason, might have taken it a step too far.

In any case, Nollaig Shona Daoibh to all my readers, and all the ships at sea!