“Enjoy a reading of “MacAnanty, Fairy King Of Scrabo Hill”. The name ‘Scrabo’ means rough or scraggy and at one time there would have been a small community living on the hill with their cattle. According to legend, their king was John MacAnanty. By the time when George was writing, the hill here at Scrabo was being defaced and quarried away for the purposes of modern civilisation. In the poem, you’ll hear the repeated lament ‘Och-a-nee’ which is a sorrowful sound. George pictures the little fairy folk in their red caps, no longer able to dance and enjoy their music as the mechanical diggers and engines destroy their peaceful home.”
– Discover Ulster-Scots
