[3] Modern Irish dictionaries give port (aireacht) béil,[4] translated as "mouth music" also referred to as lilting.
[9] Usually, the genre involves a single performer singing lighthearted, sometimes bawdy lyrics, occasionally supplemented with meaningless vocables.
Some elements of puirt à beul may have originated as memory aids or as alternatives to instrumental forms such as bagpipe music.
[11] A third example, sung by Kitty MacLeod and her sister, occurs in Walt Disney’s Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue, during the wedding celebration.
Quadriga Consort has been the first ensemble to bring puirt à beul into early music revival.