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Irish Solo Set Dances—Behind the Names

Dates in headings note the earliest year or period in which a tune is known to have existed at this time. Many have a date of 1903 as it was the first time they were recorded by Frank O’Neill, but are likely earlier.

• A Sprig of Shillelagh
• Ace & Deuce of Pipering, The
• Battle of Arklow, The
• Blackbird, The
• Blackthorn Stick, The
• Blue-Eyed Rascal, The
• Bonaparte’s Retreat
• Deep Green Pool, The
• Donegal Rambler, The
• Downfall of Paris, The
• Drunken Gauger, The
• Fiddler ’Round the Fairy Tree
• Four Masters, The
• Garden of Daisies, The
• Hunt, The
• Hurry the Jug
• Is the Big Man Within?
• Job of Journeywork, The
• Jockey to the Fair
• Kilkenny Races
• King of the Fairies
• Lodge Road, The
• Madame Bonaparte
• Miss Brown’s Fancy
• The Orange Rogue
• The Piper thro’ the Meadow Straying
• Planxty Davis
• Planxty Drury
• Planxty Hugh O'Donnell
• Planxty Irwin
• The Rambling Rake
• Rodney’s Glory
• The Roving Peddlar
• Rub the Bag
• Saint Patrick’s Day
• The Storyteller
• The Three Sea Captains
• The Wandering Musician
• The White Blanket
• Youghal Harbor

A Sprig of Shillelagh (1905)

“Shillelagh” is a word that has become synonymous with the cudgel favored by Irish faction fighters in the 19th century. It still retains that connotation today, cemented by old stage-Irish performers who carried the implement as a stock symbol of their origin. The association of the name Shillelagh with ‘a club’ stems from the quality of wood that could be found in the oak forest at Shillelagh in County Wicklow (not far from Tinahely), from which a superior brand of cudgel could be fashioned. Terry Moylan notes the typical Irish fighting stick was oak, not blackthorn. The ‘sprig of Shillelagh’ in the title may refer to a sprig of oak from the forest of Shillelagh. Unfortunately, the stock of oak in Ireland has diminished considerably, so that modern shillelaghs are invariably made of blackthorn, fashioned for the tourist trade in rather short, stubbly implements (the original oak shillelagh was a sturdy three feet long). (Source)

Also known as: Black Joak, Black Joke, Darling Nedeen, Irish Dragoon, Irish Oak, O! Love is the soul of a neat Irish man, Paddy McShane, Shandrum Boggoon, Sublime was the warning, Thistle Sae Green, When the bright spark of freedom

See also: The Blackthorn Stick

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The Ace & Deuce of Pipering (1853)

The title means the highest quality of performance on the Uillean pipes, and the tune was considered “the perfection of music when well played on the bag-pipes, and its correct performance was believed to be a sufficient test of the instrumental skill of a piper” (Joyce). Joyce (1873) specifies hornpipe time for the melody. Source for notated version: noted in 1853 from the whistling of John Dolan, Glenosheen, County Limerick (Joyce). (Source)

Also known as: Ace and Deuce, The Ace and Deuce, The Ace and Deuce of Piping,

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The Battle of Arklow

The [first] Battle of Arklow took place on the coast road through Arklow in County Wicklow during November 1649. It was fought between the armies of Confederate Ireland (allied with the Royalists), and the EnglishParliamentarians during the Irish Confederate Wars.

The Battle of Arklow was a relatively small battle, and thus the failure of the Irish forces to cripple Nelson's New Model force was a demoralising setback but little more. For Inchiquin, however, the consequences were more serious. The battle had presented an opportunity for him to regain the trust of his countrymen, both Catholic and Protestant. His failure to defeat the numerically smaller English force left Inchiquin disgraced. After the battle, Inchiquin returned to Munster, where there were still a number of companies loyal to him, but these were routed by Broghill in March the next year. Shortly afterwards Inchiquin fled to the continent. (Source)

The second Battle of Arklow took place during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 on June 9 when a force of United Irishmen from Wexford, estimated at 10,000 strong, launched an assault into County Wicklow, on the British-held town of Arklow, in an attempt to spread the rebellion into Wicklow and to threaten the capital of Dublin. The defeat at Arklow marked the third failure to extend the fight for Irish independence beyond the borders of Co. Wexford following the other bloody repulses at New Ross and Bunclody. The Irish strategy now changed to a policy of static defence against the encroaching British armies. (Source)

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The Blackbird (1718)

The Irish collector Edward Bunting (1840) thinks the tune "bears evident marks of a much higher antiquity" than the Jacobite war of 1688-90, though O'Sullivan finds the earliest printed version to have been issued on a London broadside in 1718. O'Farrell (1804-10), too, marked it "very old." It is clear however, that the tune became immensely popular from the early 18th century to throughout the 19th century.

“In the early half of the last century this song was known and sung all over Ireland. It was a particular favourite in Limerick and Cork, so that I learned it at a period too early for me to remember. An abridged copy of the song is given in Duffy's Ballad Poetry; but I give here the whole text, partly from memory, and partly from a ballad-sheet printed in Cork by Haly, sixty or seventy years ago. Duffy tells us that the song—i.e. the curtailed copy he has given—is found in a Scotch collection of Jacobite Relics. But the words are Irish—as much so as the splendid air, which is found in many Irish musical collections, both printed and MS., including Bunting's volume (1840), and which was, and still is, played everywhere by Irish pipers and fiddlers. My notation of the air follows the Munster musicians and singers of sixty yeas [sic] ago.

“The ‘Blackbird’ meant the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Edward Stuart. This custom of representing the Pretender—and much oftener Ireland itself—under allegorical names was common in Ireland in the 18th and the first half of the 19th century; the original object of which was concealment, so that the people might be able to sing their favourite Jacobite and political songs freely in the dangerous times of the Penal Laws“ (P.W. Joyce). Zimmerman, in his Songs of Irish Rebellion (pg. 57) mentions the use of birds as metaphorical images and states that the blackbird was the first avian to be used in such a representational manner in Anglo-Irish songs (see Bayard's note quoted at length in version #4).

The song is not often sung in modern times but remains well-known as an instrumental throughout Ireland. Cowdery (1990) speculates this may be because of its ocatave[sic]-and-a-fifth range, with emphasis on the high notes as well as the low finals, or perhaps due to the “rather ambiguous feelings many Irish people have about James II’s flight and exile.”

One fair summer’s morning of soft recreation,
I heard a fair maiden a making great moan.
With sighing and sobbing and sad lamentation,
And saying my blackbird most royal has flown.
My thoughts they deceive me, reflection it grieves me,
And I am overburdened with sad misery,
Yet if death it should blind me as true love inclines me,
My Blackbird I’d seek out wherever he be.

Ihe index to the Irish collector Edward Bunting's 1840 collection gives the source as "D. O'Donnell, harper, Co. Mayo, 1803." Bunting (The Ancient Music of Ireland), 1840. (Source)

Also known as: The Royal Blackbird

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The Blackthorn Stick (1903)

“An Maide Draighin” (The Blackthorn Stick) is the title under which this version appears in Breathnach’s Coel Rinnce na hEireann, vol. 1 (1964). It is unrelated to the “Blackthorn Stick” tunes printed by O’Neill though it does appear in his volumes as “The Milkmaid” and “The Maid at the Well.” (Source)

Also known as: Catholic Boys, The Christmas Jig, The Coach Road To Sligo, The Humours Of Bantry, The Maid at the Well, An Maide Draighin, Maids of Glenroe, The Mail Coach Road To Sligo, The Milkmaid, The Robin's Nest, The Scotia Reel, The Silver Tip

See also: A Sprig of Shillelagh

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The Blue-Eyed Rascal (1965)

McNulty (Dance Music of Ireland), 1965; pg. 28. (Source)

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Bonaparte’s Retreat (Early 19th Century)

This tune has been long adapted into American folk traditions, and in fact, the tune has Irish origins, though Burman-Hall could only find printed variants in sources from that island from 1872 onward. "It has been collected in a variety of functions, including an Irish lullaby and a 'Frog Dance' from the Isle of Man" (Linda Burman-Hall, "Southern American Folk Fiddle Styles," Ethnomusicology, Vol. 19, #1, Jan. 1975). Samuel Bayard (1944) concurs with assigning Irish origins for "Bonaparte's Retreat," and notes that it is an ancient Irish march tune with quite a varied traditional history. The 'ancient march' is called "The Eagle's Whistle" or "The Eagle's Tune," which P.W. Joyce (1909) said was formerly the marching tune of the once powerful O'Donovan family. Still, states Bayard, the evidence of Irish collections indicates that it has long been common property of traditional fiddlers and pipers, and has undergone considerable alteration at various hands.

Francis O'Neill concludes that the tune was widely known in Munster but not outside the province, from the contact he had with Irish musicians in Chicago. However, it appears that his Irish Music Club was primarily made up of musicians from the south of Ireland, and that he had relatively few contacts with musicians from other regions. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; pg. 221. (Source)

Also known as: The Eagle's Whistle, The Eagle's Tune

See also: Madame Bonaparte, The Downfall of Paris

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The Deep Green Pool

Currently unknown.

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The Donegal Rambler (1930s)

The Donegal Rambler as played on Dean Crouch's Music Samples is a treble jig; however, anything I can find on this dance points to a very normal-looking reel called The Donegal Traveller. The jury's out on this one, but here's what I did find on the reel:

The Fiddler's Companion says "Donegal fiddler Hugh Gillespie recorded the tune in New York in the 1930’s." (Source) Under "The Donegal Traveller Reel," FC continues: "The tune was recorded on a 78 RPM disc by Hugh Gillespie, a Donegal fiddler much influenced by Michael Coleman. Finbar Dwyer recorded the melody as “Gillespie’s” in his honor." (Source)

This recording is listed at The Session under the tune name of "The Donegal Traveller". In the comments of that tune, Kenny states that "It is often played by Joe Burke, who has been known to give it the curious title of 'The Mouse Who Strangled The Cat'.”

On the same page, Slainte adds: This tune appears as "The Tuam Reel" on east Galway flute player Sean Moloney's recent solo album. He learned it from Joe Burke and Paddy Carty. Now, I quote the notes: "Joe informed me that the tune is also called The Mouse that Caught the Cat and is a version of the Donegal Traveller. He obtained it from fiddle player Sean Ryan in the 1950's. Emmet Gill suggested the name, Tuam Reel, as this is the name on the earliest recording we can find of the tune by P. J. Conlon." (Source)

Also known as (reel): The Donegal Traveller, The Donegal Traveller Reel, The Drunken Tinker, Fánaí Thir Chonaill, Gillespie’s, McFadden's, McFadden's Reel, The Mouse Who Strangled The Cat (version of), The Tuam Reel (version of)

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The Downfall of Paris (1780s/1798)

Better known in the American South and among modern American fiddlers as "Mississippi Sawyer," the melody was called "The Downfall of Paris" in Europe and this title was at one time retained in parts of Tennessee and the Ozarks. It was played early in the 19th century when the allies entered Paris after the battle of Waterloo, but "on that occasion (the British commander) Wellington sharply put a stop to it, and the offending Royal Regiment played instead 'Croppies Lie Down.' Apart from being played by military bands on every conceivable occasion, its 'one tormenting strum, strum, strum' was the delight of amateur pianists throughout Britain" (Winstock, 1970; pg. 105).

The melody, however, had not been new to France in Wellington’s time. Famously, it had been the vehicle for the song "Ça Ira," or “Ah ca ira” (‘les aristocrates a la lanterne’, or, roughly, ‘Lets go lynch the aristocrats’} sung by the first and bloodiest French Revolutionaries in the late 1780's. Elson (The National Music of America, 1899) reports: “It was sung to many a scene of massacre and bloodshed; it was warbled and trilled out when the mob carried the head of the beautiful Princess de Lamballe, on a pike, through the streets of Paris, and thrust it up for the unhappy queen to look at.”

Despite this gruesome association the melody began innocently enough as a light vaudeville piece composed by one M. Bécourt, a side-drum player at the Opéra. It soon proved popular as a contra-dance melody and frequently appeared in the French cotillions prior to its being seeped in blood. Interestingly, especially in view of the tune’s later importation to America, the title was suggested by none other than Benjamin Franklin who used the phrase (which translates as “It will succeed”) in connection with the prospects of the American Revolution. General Lafayette took Franklin’s expression and passed it to a street singer named Ladré as a good refrain for a popular song.

There is evidence that the tune and title “Downfall of Paris” was the product of the West Yorkshire Regiment, dating from the year 1793. It was played by British army bands during the Peninsular War against Napoleon’s armies. Its dance roots gradually resurfaced, and in 1805 it was printed in O’Farrell’s Pocket Companion for the Uilleann or Union Pipes, and in 1816 the melody was again printed, this time in England in London dancing master Thomas Wilson’s Companion to the Ball Room.

Freed somewhat from its military connotations, the dance tune “Downfall of Paris” became widespread in the British Isles, where it appears in collections of Irish music as well as in southern English village musicians’ tune books. In addition “Downfall of Paris” (or “The Fall of Paris”) can be found in a number of British musicians’ manuscripts from the 19^th century. Early published versions can be found in Cahusac’s Compleat Tutor for the German Flute (London, 1798) and Wheatstone’s Clarinet Preceptor (London, c. 1801).

In America it appears in the copybook of flute player R.B. Washburn (1816-20), Abel Shattuck (Colrain, Mass., c. 1801-182?), and John Niles (1813). Early published American versions include those in Saltator’s Treatise on Dancing (Boston, 1807) and Samuel Holyoke’s Instrumantal Assistant (Exeter, N.H., 1807).

“Downfall of Paris” was played as a Tattoo during the American Civil War, signalling bed-time and “lights out” in a military camp. Even today it is a standard in American fife-and-drum repertoire. The title appears in a list of traditional Ozark Mountain fiddle tunes compiled by musicologist/folklorist Vance Randolph, published by 1954. (Source)

Also known as: The Fall of Paris, Hae You Ony More Ado (Shetland), Mississippi Sawyer (USA)

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The Drunken Gauger or The Funny Tailor (1873/1914)

At one time a ‘gauger’ was a functionary whose job it was to monitor public houses to insure that various sized drinks were served in vessels of accurate measure: i.e. that a pint drink served actually measured a full pint, a gill measured a gill, and so on. Such intense scrutiny of alcoholic conveyances would undoubtedly be a thirsty business, perhaps helped along by a hopeful or sly publican if the measure might be short. Not a few gaugers probably achieved the level of inebriation required for the title.The set dance is supposed by some to imitate the attitude of a staggering gauger, weary and perhaps too ‘affected’ by his work. Breathnach says the set dance is especially associated with County Clare. The term ‘gauger’ has largely died out, says Caoimhin Mac Aoidh, although it is retained in modern usage (with a derogatory connotation) in County Donegal for a social service functionary whose job it is to monitor fraud with regard to welfare, or ‘the dole’.

Charlie Piggott, in his book Blooming Meadows (1998), in the essay on Kilmaley, County Clare, fiddler, flute player and uilleann piper Peader O’Loughlin, remarks on tunes being disseminated into local, isolated traditions in Ireland by visiting musicians. It is remembered that “The Drunken Gouger” was introduced into the Kilmaley-Connolly, Clare, area “from the repertoire of dancing-master Paddy Barren, who regularly visited the O’Loughlin household and held dancing classes there.” The tune is now commonly played throughout Clare. Clare fiddler Junior Crehan was recorded playing the tune and talking about it beforehand; he remembered it from the mendicant dancing master Barron’s second visit to his area, around 1935 (Barron’s first visit had been for an extended period from 1914-1918). Crehan learned the tune at the behest of Barron, who wanted him to play for the dancers, to whom Barron would teach both steps and sets for a shilling for three nights of instruction. (Source)

In modern times The Funny Tailor is one of the jig time set dances performed in competitions sponsored by An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelachha (The Irish Dance Commission, Dublin). Instead of a traditional pattern of steps, however, each dance teacher choreographs original steps for their students to dance this tune to. Among dancers, it is also referred to as The Drunken Gauger, although there is another unrelated set dance tune by that name and there is some resultant confusion between the tunes for that reason. P.W. Joyce (Ancient Irish Music, 1873) writes: “We have a class of Irish airs, each phrase of which consists of the unusual number of five bars. To this class belong Bunting’s air ‘The Pretty Red Girl’, (known in Munster as ‘Banathee haive’); ‘The Red Haired Man’s Wife’, ‘Drahareen-o-machree’, (p. 39 of this book); and many others. Most of them are slow tunes; but a few like the present are quick. Some would perhaps reduce tunes like this to six-eight time, by doubling the length of every fifth bar (which could be done by prolonging the crotchet to the length of five quavers, i.e. dotted crotchet and crotchet); but to do so in the present case, would be simply to falsify the tune. The set dance was adapted to it in the way in which I give it here.” (Source)

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Fiddler ’Round the Fairy Tree (1976)

Irish, Set Dance. Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland), vol. 2, No. 85 (1976). Given as Fiddler Behind the Fairy Tree. (Source)

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The Four Masters

Currently unknown.

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The Garden of Daisies (1905)

This once popular set dance, remarks O’Neill (1913), was derived from a slow song air which was familiar to him from his boyhood days in Ulster. He remembered one line:

My hook began to glitter, my flail it was in order.

It was not until O’Neill’s next door neighbor, Sergeant Michael Hartnett, gave him the tune as it was played where he lived, however, that O’Neill was able to obtain a full setting. As luck would have it:

“Canal a week or so later, what should I hear on the boat but another of our long-lost tune, played in fine style by Early and McFadden! It had been sent them by (piper) Pat Tuohey, who learned it from a fiddler recently arrived in Boston, and who in turn had picked it upfrom Stephenson, the great Kerry piper.”

In Irish tradition “Garden of Daisies” is one of the four tunes called the Traditional Sets (i.e. set dances), along with “Job of Journeywork,” “The Blackbird” and “St. Patrick’s Day.” (Source)

Also known as: The Palatine's Daughter

Humours of Bandon (1690)

Brendan Breathnach (1996) says the word ‘humours’ in a title denotes character, mood and exuberance of spirit. It has also been described as a whim, fancy or caprice. It is used only in combination with a placename and always precedes it. “The Humours of Dublin” and “The Humours of Billingsgate” can be found in London dance music collections as far back as the mid-18^th century.

A Whig tune having eight bars in the 'A' part and sixteen bars in the second. It was known as far back as 1690 when the Irish (who had learned it from the supporters of William III) played it when they sacked Kilbrogan (Winstock, 1970, pg. 26). As “The Humours of Listivain” it appears in Jackson’s Celebrated Irish Tunes, published in Dublin by Samuel Lee around 1775 (reprinted in 1790), a collection of tunes from gentleman piper Walker ‘Piper’ Jackson of the townland of Lisduan in the parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick.

The tune was still current in 19th century County Limerick, for O’Neill (1913) mentions a retired Chicago policeman colleague remembered having danced it in his boyhood to the piping of Newcastle-West gentleman-musician Jack Moore. The title appears in the John Carroll manuscript of dance music entrusted to the Newberry Library in Chicago. Carroll was apparently stationed at Fort Niagara in the early 19th century and the dates 1804 and 1812 appear contained in the pages of the manuscript. Some believe “Humors of Bandon” to be a distanced version of “The Black Joke.” Fiddler James Morrison (1893-1947), originally from Drumfin, County Sligo, recorded the tune in New York in February, 1923. (Source)

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The Hunt (18th Century)

The tune is attributed by Goodman to the 18^th century gentleman-piper Walker ‘Piper’ Jackson, of the townland of Lisdaun, parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick. (Source)

Also known as: Galtee Hunt, Mount Pheobus Hunt, The Mountfamous Hunt

The Hurling Boys (18th Century/Post-Jockey to the Fair)

George Petrie notes: “A very popular tune of the King’s County.” Hurling is an ancient Gaelic game and a popular modern sport in Ireland owing to a revival that began in the late 19^th century.

Perhaps the most famous hurler was the Irish hero Cú Chulainn, the leader of a great band of Ulster warriors and the greatest figure of Irish mythology. The hero was originally named Setanta, and came about his mature name in this way. As a young boy he had gained knowledge and performed feats far beyound what is usual for one his age. At the age of five years he decided to join the boys corps of warriors-in-training at the court of his uncle, King Conor Mac Neasa of Ulster, and set out to walk the distance, amusing himself on the way by hurling the sliotar and throwing the hurley stick after it, then running like a flash to catch them before they hit ground.

He astonished Conor and the boys of the corps with his prowess on the hurling field, scoring easily and defending against all shots. In fact, Conor was so impressed that when he was invited to a banquet of the house of Culainn he asked Setanta to accompany him. Caught up in a hurling game at the time, Setanta promised to hurry along afterward and to meet his uncle there, a plan to which his uncle agreed.

When the king arrived, Culainn welcomed him with due ceremony and bade him enter the banquet hall with his retinue, checking with Conor when the last guest had been seated that all had indeed arrived. Conor, forgetting about young Setanta, assured him all were there, upon which Culainn closed the hall doors and let loose his magnificent hound, a prodigious beast, to guard the building. Setanta, hurrying along as promised, approached the house only to be set upon by the hound who bayed like thunder and lunged, fangs bared to rip the youngster to pieces. The boy, who only had his hurling stick and sliotar at hand, hurled the ball with all the force he could muster, a colossal force, and sent the ball through the gaping jaws of the hound where it lodged in his throat. Stunned with pain the animal stopped in his tracks which gave Setanta time to grab him by the legs and dash his head upon the stone courtyard.

Meanwhile the noise of the conflict roused the diners in the hall, and Conor finally remembered that Setanta was due to attend. Fearing the worst he and Cullain rushed out, expecting to find the lad torn assunder, but instantly overjoyed to see him whole and well. There was the matter of the hound, however, a treasured guardian of a vassel of the king’s, and a loyal friend to Culainn who mourned his loss. To repay the debt Setanta pledged to find a young hound and train it as a replacement guardian, and, volunteered in the meantime to himself guard Cullain’s house and property in place of the slain animal. King Conor decreed this was fair, and it was thus that Setanta became known as Cú Chulainn, which means ‘the hound of Culainn’.

The set dance, played as a jig, was in the repertoire of Suffolk fiddler Fred ‘Pip’ Whiting, and is described as an “Old Country Dance” on his Topic recording. Pete Cooper says the tune is “clearly a vernacular descendant of ‘Jockey to the Fair’.” (Source)

See also: Jockey to the Fair

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Hurry the Jug (1840s)

Learned by Joyce as a boy in Limerick in the 1840's. A later form of the tune is the song/tune "Lanigan's Ball." (Source)

Also known as: Once on a morning of sweet recreation

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Is the Big Man Within? (1907)

Currently unknown.

Also known as: The Far Mor, How are you now, my maid?, The Merry Tailor (Source)

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The Job of Journeywork (1760–1795)

Francis O’Neill (1922) said this set-dance tune was derived from a song air. Samuel Bayard (1954) published a study of a tune family he called "The Job of Journeywork," evidently feeling "this long, irregular tune developed by the eighteenth century Irish dancing masters was somehow archetypical" (Cowdery, 1990). The second strain of the melody has been the one which has spawned the most variants, one of many of the "standard building blocks" (Ó Canainn, 1978) of the Irish melodic tradition.Joyce (1890) states the tune was “a great favourite” in some of the Munster counties twenty or thirty years before he first published his volume in 1873.

However, the first printed appearance of the tune appears to be in James Aird’s Selection of Scotch, English Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 3 (Glasgow, c. 1795). Robert Burns used the tune for one of his songs appearing in the Scots Musical Museum (vol. V, Edinburth, 1788, No. 480), entitled “Here’s His Health in Water.” The great east Clare fiddle stylist Paddy Canny's recording of the tune has been called the standard for modern settings and was used as the theme for the radio program of the same name in Ireland.Some similarity has been noted between “Job of Journeywork” and a tune printed by Stanford in his Irish Melodies (1894) called “The Little Red Fox.” The versions printed by Howe and Joyce are virtually identical. The melody is called “Stone Grinds All” in Connecticut fifer Giles Gibb’s (1760-1780) music manuscript book.

In Irish tradition “Job of Journeywork” is one of the four tunes called the Traditional Sets (i.e. set dances), along with “St. Patrick’s Day,” “The Blackbird” and “Garden of Daisies.”

Source for notated version: “A Munster dance. From (the Irish collector) Mr. Joyce” [Stanford/Petrie]; Joyce himself learned it from “hearing it constantly played by pipers and fiddlers” [Joyce]. (Source)

Also known as: Stone Grinds All

See also: Saint Patrick's Day, The Blackbird, The Garden of Daisies

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Jockey to the Fair (Circa mid-18th Century)

The melody, dating at least from the mid‑18th century, was a popular tune throughout England and served several functions, including dancing and marching. Morris dance versions are wide-spread and numerous and have been collected from the villages Adderbury, Ascot‑Under Wychwood, Bampton, Bledington, Brackley, Ducklington, Headinton, Longborough, and Sherborne areas of England's Cotswolds. In the north, the title appeared in Henry Robson's list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes ("The Northern Minstrel's Budget"), which he published c. 1800. One version of the tune was used as a march in the British army during the Revolutionary War period (Winstock). The word ‘jockey’ is Scots in origin and derives from the word ‘joculator’, which by the 17^th century meant an itinerant minstrel. See also the derivative set dance “The Hurling Boys.” (Source)

Also known as: Jockie to the Fair, The Jockey at the Fair, Jogging to the Fair

See also: The Hurling Boys

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Kilkenny Races (1875)

To be played “with dashing vigour,” according to Joyce. Kilkenny takes its name from Saint Kenneth, a companion of St. Columba. (Source)

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King of the Fairies (1783)

One tale attached to the tune has it that “The King of the Fairies” is a summoning tune, and if played three times in a row during a festivity the King must appear. Once summoned, however, the King assesses the situation, and if the gathering is to his liking he may join in; if however, he does not find it to his liking he may cause great mischief. “King of the Fairies” appears to be derived from a Jacobite tune called “Bonny Charlie,” appearing in many 18th century Scots and Northern English publications, such as Aird (1783). It was collected in the 19th century in Ireland by P.W. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, 1909, No. 690) under the title “Your old wig is the love of my heart,” and by George Petrie as an untitled air (Stanford/Petrie, Complete Collection, No. 1281). (Source)

Also known as: Rí na Sideog, Bonnie Charlie, King William of Orange, Your Old Wig is the Love of My Heart

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The Lodge Road (1903)

“From O’Neill, slightly altered” according to Roche. The tune has become popular in English sessions, notes Barry Callaghan (2007), who believes it may have been popularized by melodeon player Martin Ellison in the 1980s. (Source)

Also known as: Botar na Congbail, Botar Tig an Geata

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Madame Bonaparte (Early 19th Century)

The tune is named in honor of Bonaparte's wife, the Empress Josephine, probably reflecting the Irish sympathy with powerful Catholic France and the hope that Napoleon might at some point aid the cause of Irish independence. According to Donal Hickey (Stone Mad for Music, 1999), “Madame Bonaparte” was associated with James Gandsey, ‘the Killarney Minstrel’, who died in 1857 at the age of 90. Gandsey survives in folk memory in the Sliabh Luachra region and some facts are clearly remembered. The son of a soldier in Ross Castle and a native Killarney mother, Gandsey was almost completely blinded in infancy by smallpox. He became known as Lord Headley’s Piper and contributed several tunes to the regional repertoire… He is buried in Muckross Abbey, Killarney. (Source)

Also known as: Banflait Bonapart, Bonaparte’s Advance

See also: Bonaparte’s Retreat, The Downfall of Paris

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Miss Brown’s Fancy (1903)

Though no background was found, it is interesting to note that there was a hornpipe/reel and three slip jigs also with this name. (Source) The earliest I've found it published has been 1903, in O'Neill's. (Source)

Also known as: Maggie Brown’s Favorite, Peggy Browne

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The Orange Rogue (1903)

The first part is the same as that of the slide “The Trooper.” (Source)

Also known as: An Rogaire Oraisteac, Bunch of Clover

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The Piper thro’ the Meadow Straying (Circa 1800)

The melody appears in O’Farrell’s c. 1800 publications Collection of National Music for the Union Pipes and Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes (c. 1808), and a bit later in Colclough’s pipe tutor. Bruce Olson finds what is probably the same tune as a duet called “A piper on the meadows straying” in the 1795 ballad opera Zorinski (music selected and composed by Dr. Samuel Arnold) and that the song with music was published the following year in Walker’s Hibernian Magazine.

A verse (printed in Charms of Melody, Dublin, c. 1795–1810) begins A piper on the meadows straying, / Met a simple maid a-maying. Many people will recognize the similarity between sections of the ‘B’ part of the tune and the popular Christmas carol “Deck the Halls.” Learned by Joyce as a child in Co. Limerick, c. 1840. (Source)

Also known as: A Piper on the Meadows Straying, Piper in the Meadows Straying, Piper O’er the Meadows Straying

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Planxty Davis (17th Century?)

One of the supposed seven or eight hundred compositions of the ancient harper Thomas O’Connellan (d. 1698), almost all of which are lost. It is known in Scotland as “The Battle of Killiecrankie.” (Source)

Also known as: Pleraca Daibis, Plearaca Daiti, Killiekrankie, Battle of Killiecrankie

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Planxty Drury (1724)

Composed by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) to celebrate the marriage of John Drury of Kingsland, Co. Roscommon, to Elizabeth Goldsmith in 1724, according to Donal O’Sullivan (1958). The last verse of O’Carolan’s song praises those who marry for love, and not money.

John was the elder son of Lieutenant Edward Drury of Kingsland, at Lough Gara, near Boyle, County Rosommon, and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Gore. His bride was the daughter of John Goldsmith, Ballyoughter, County Rosommon, and was the first cousin of renowned author Oliver Goldsmith. They were descendents of English folk from Surrey, including Sir William Drury, Lord Deputy of Ireland in Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and were large landholders in the counties of Roscommon and Carlow. John’s wife, Elizabeth, on the other hand, was from a family of rather modest means.

Unfortunately, the union was cut short by John’s death the next year, in May, 1725, at age 20. He managed to father a daughter with Elizabeth, however, and it was she who inherited all the lands of her father, which thus left the Drury family. The fortunes of the Drurys eclipsed due to mismanagement and litigation, and the next generation was poor. (Source)

Also known as: Pleraca Druri, John Drury, Oh! Will You Sit in the Bower?, Jubilee at Eindhoven (the title of a dance by Philippe Callens set to the tune)

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Planxty Hugh O'Donnell (1670–1738)

Composed by Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) in honor of Hugh, one of the sons of Colonel Manus O'Donnell of Newport, Co. Mayo. Hugh married Maud Browne, of Mount Browne, Co. Mayo in 1728, reports O'Sullivan (1958), who also provides further family history. It seems that the Colonel was the great-grandson of Niall Garbh O'Donnell, who had the curious miss-circumstance to be offered the earldom of Tyrconnell by both Elizbeth and James. Instead of this dual offer securing his fortune, however, it sealed his fate for he was brought to England in 1608 to languish in the Tower of London for twenty years until his death. The air was first published by John and William Neale in Dublin around 1742. (Source)

Also known as: Hugh O'Donnell, Pleraca Aod Ua Domnaill, Planxtae Aodha Mic Domhneil

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Planxty Irwin

Composed by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) for a patron, Colonel John Irwin (1680-1752) of Tanrego House (situated on Ballysodare Bay, in the townland of Tanrego West), County Sligo. Donal O’Sullivan (1958) thought it was composed around the year 1713 after Irwin’s return from overseas wars, as O’Carolan’s song to the tune mentions Irwin’s military exploits in Flanders. The Irwin family were originally English grantees of lands in Ireland under the Cromwellian Settlement in the mid-17th century, expanded in settlement of arrears of military pay. They were neighbors of the Crofton family of Longford House, Catholic gentry, who lived a few miles south. Although the Irwins fought for the Williamite side during the Jacobite wars, the Croftons gave them refuge when they were in need (see O’Sullivan, 1958, notes to No. 59). Thaddaeus Connellan translated the Irish verses into English, keeping the Gaelic character, in his An Duanaire (1829):

We will take our way without delay
To see a Noble, brave and gay,
The gallant Colonel near the sea,
Him I mean to treat of;
With mirth and joy he fills his glasses,
Delights to cheer both lads and lasses,
This is John I will answer,
The brave English Irelánder. (Source)

Also known as: Colonel Irwin, Colonel John Irwin, Oh! Banquet Not (similar to), Planxty Erwin, Pleraca Iarbain (Source)

The Rambling Rake

Currently unknown.

Also known as: An Racaire Fanac (Source)

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Rodney’s Glory (1782)

The tune is a set dance version of Turlough O'Carolan's air "Princess Royal" or "Miss MacDermott." The title "Rodney's Glory," explains O'Sullivan (1983), was derived from verses by the poet Eoghain Rua Ó Súilleabháin in 1782, set to O’Carolan’s tune. The song commemorates a naval battle fought that year in which George Rodney (d. 1792), then vice-admiral of Great Britain, encountered a French fleet under Admiral Comte De Grasse. "The Battle of the Saints" or “Les Saintes” (named after Les Isles des Saintes, in the West Indies between Guadeloupe and Dominica), as the engagement was called, was one of the most important sea battles in wooden-ship history.

Rodney’s thirty-three ships broke in two places the French line-of-battle of thirty-seven ships of the line, when, after the fleets had nearly passed each other on opposite tacks, a change of wind favored the British. The result was the capture of the French flagship and admiral along with five other ships. It was to be the final battle of the War of the American Revolution, and, strategically, although it did not negate Washington’s victory at Yorktown it did preserve Britain’s West Indian territories. Rodney was rewarded with a peerage although he came in for criticism for not following up his initial victory with the destruction of the remainder of the French fleet. Ó Súilleabháin served on The Formidable, a ship which saw some of the severest fighting and thus “Rodney's Glory" is a first-hand account of the battle.

O’Neill (1913) believes the long-dance to be simply a direct adaptation from the song called “Rodney’s Glory”. “Rodney’s Glory” is included in a list of favorite set-dances in O’Keeffe and O’Brien’s Handbook of Irish Dance (O’Neill).

Éamon Kelly (Foreword, Stone Mad for Music, 1999) states that poet and folk hero Eoghan Rua (who died in 1784) is still an important figure in the Sliabh Luachra region of County Kerry that was his home. His verses are remembered, as was his voice which is said to have been sweet, melodious and eloquent. Kelly recalls:

“Though the neighbouring men sitting around my father’s fire when I was small knew no Irish they had a wealth of stories about Eoghan Rua. It seems he was one day going to Cork and outside Millstreet a school-master picked up something from the road and said to Eoghan, ‘Look at that, I am in luck for the day—I found a horseshoe.’ ‘No doubt,’ Eoghan remarked, ‘education is a wonderful thing. I wouldn’t know whether that was a horseshoe or a mare’s shoe.’

"The parish priest calling out the names of those who hadn’t paid their dues enquired, ‘Where is Eoghan Ó Súilleabháin?’ Eoghan answered and the priest asked, ‘Are you Eoghan a’ Dirrín [Eoghan from Dirrín?]?’ ‘Ní mé,’ arsa Eoghan, ‘ach Eoghan a’ bhéil bhinn’ ['Not me,' answered Eoghan, 'but Eoghan the musical mouth']." (Source)

Also known as: Gloire Ui Rodnaig, Irishman's Return from America, My Name is Moll Mackey, Praises of Limerick

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The Roving Peddlar

No background for this tune, though there is an air by the same name circa 1810. (Source)

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Rub the Bag (1873)

Joyce notes the tune was well known in Cork and Limerick, and that Petrie gives a Kilkenny version of this tune under the title “Ree Raw.” Joyce notes that in Munster the phrase ‘cumail a’ mhailin’ (like “Ree Raw”) signifies “confusion or uproarious merriment.” Source for notated version: “I learned it when a boy (in the 1840's in Limerick) from fiddlers and pipers, who used to play it as a set dance. I remember seeing a man dance it one time on a table” [Joyce]. (Source)

Also known as: Cumuil an Mala, Cumail an Mhailin, Ree Raw

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Saint Patrick’s Day (1745)

The first mention of the tune is that it was one of two tunes (with "The White Cockade") played by the pipers of the Irish Brigade attached to the French forces which helped turn the tide of battle against the English troops at the battle of Fontenoy on May 11, 1745. Flood (1906) and O’Neill (1913) believe was probably the last appearance in battle of the Irish Piob mor (war pipes or great pipes, which survived only in Scotland) of which there is any mention.  Rutherford's 200 Country Dances, volume 1, 1756, contains the first country dance printing of the tune, which also appears in English collections as a jig by the name "Barbary Bell." Typically for popular melodies of the time, it also became the vehicle for many songs, including air 35, "A plague of these wenches," in the opera Love in a Village by T.A. Arne and I. Bickerstaffe (London, 1762).

As song, country dance or quickstep it remained popular for many years. In later military tradition it was played on December 31, 1811 by the 87th Regiment band as a French attack became a rout at Tarifa, and Winstock (1970) remarks it was a favourite quickstep of the Napoleonic era Peninsular War in the British army. Queen Victoria requested the melody from piper Thomas Mahon when she and the Prince Consort visited Ireland for the first time in 1849. Mahon was surprised to learn that she and the Prince were familiar “with the best gems in Irish music,” and he also played “The Royal Irish Quadrilles” and “Garryowen” at their behest. The Queen must have been impressed with his playing, for she directed that henceforth Mahon have the title “Professor of the Irish Union Bagpipers to Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria” (O’Neill, 1913). English country dance versions appear several times in James Oswald’s Caledonian Pocket Companion (London, 1760), and James AIrd printed it in Glasgow in his Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 1 (1782).

The melody has been danced and marched to in North America for some two hundred years where it has been very popular, sustained in part by the large immigrant Irish population as a signature anthem. The jig appears earliest in America in Giles Gibbs' 1777 Connecticut fife MS. George White (Cherry Valley, New York) included it in his 1790-1830 fiddle manuscript, as did Elisha Belknap (Framingham Mass., 1784), Ira Clark (Simsbury Connecticut, c. 1801), fiddler Daniel Aborn (1790), fluter Henry Beck (1786), and numerous others. Clement Weeks, of Greenland, New Hampshire, copied dance directions to the melody in his MS copybook of 1783. Flute player Thomas Molyneaux of Shelburne, Nova Scotia, penned it into his 1788 copybook.

It also appears in the music manuscript copybook of Henry Livingston, Jr. Livingston purchased the estate of Locust Grove, Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1771 at the age of 23. In 1775 he was a Major in the 3^rd New York Regiment, which participated in Montgomery’s invasion of Canada in a failed attempt to wrest Montreal from British control. An important land-owner in the Hudson Valley, and a member of the powerful Livingston family, Henry was also a surveyor and real estate speculator, an illustrator and map-maker, and a Justice of the Peace for Dutchess County. He was also a poet and musician, and presumably a dancer, as he was elected a Manager for the New York Assembly’s dancing season of 1774–1775, along with his 3^rd cousin, John Jay, later U.S. Chief Justice of Governor of New York. It was played in the Civil War by musicians of both sides in the conflict, and appeared in the martial music tutors School for the Fife (Elias Howe, 1851) and Army Regulations for Fife and Drum (William Nevin, 1861).

Samuel Bayard (1981) observes there are two main sets of the tune which have coexisted; a standard form and an extension form (having extra measures: 10, 12, 14 or 16 have been recorded). He notes references under the given title above date back to 1748 and 1762. Another form also has also existed for over 150 years to which Thomas Moore wrote his song "When in death I shall calm recline;" this form often appears in older collections under the title "The Legacy." Bayard collected both the standard and extension forms of the tune in southwestern Pennsylvania (he also collected a 2/4 version {No. 225, pg. 183} the source called by the floating title "The Drunken Sailor").

In Irish tradition “St. Patrick’s Day” is one of the four tunes called the Traditional Sets (i.e. set dances), along with “Job of Journeywork,” “The Blackbird” and “Garden of Daisies.” (Source)

Also known as: Saint Patrick’s Day in the Morning, La Feile Naoim Patraic, La Feile Padraig, La Gheile Paidric, Patrick's Day, Barbary Bell, The Kerry Dance, Sheelah's Wedding, Though Dark Be Our Sorrows, The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Basket, The Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket, The Legacy, When in death I shall calm recline

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The Storyteller (1903)

Currently unknown.

Also known as: An Scealaide (Source)

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The Three Sea Captains (1799)

The tune appears in the Calvert Collection (1799), assembled by Thomas Calvert, a musician from Kelso, Scotland. A note in the mansucript states that Calvert supplied “a variety of music and instruments, instruments lent out, tun’d and repaired.”

O'Neill records that he found the earliest printed setting in McGoun's Repository of Scots and Irish Airs (1799). The Irish dance set has folk-lore attached that says both tune and dance were composed descriptive of the Battle of Navarino, fought in the Ionian by a combined fleet from Britain, France and Russia against the Egyptian and Ottoman fleets in 1827 during the Greek War of Independence (this despite factual evidence of printings that much predate this date). In this sceanario the three sea captains are presumably the commanders of the allied fleets, Edward Codrington, Henri de Rigny and Login Petrovich Geiden. According to some dancers the set dance figures initially describe the ships lining up for the beginning of the battle, then turning about and returning (see the article about Cork set dancer Joe O’Donovan in Set Dancing News, 2003). (Source)

Also known as: Na Tri Taoisaig/Taoiseaca, The Three Captains, Clark's Favorite, William Clark's Favorite

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The Wandering Musician (1934)

The tune has been paired with “The Lark in the Morning” largely due to the influence of the great Co. Sligo/New York fiddler James Morrison. Breathnach (1963) finds versions of this jig in the first part of O’Neill’s “Willy Walsh’s Jig” and “The Merry Maiden,” although he thinks the second part differs. Famed Sligo fiddler Michael Coleman recorded “Wandering Minstrel” in a medley (with “Fasten the Leg in Her” and “Coleman’s Cross”) in New York in 1934. (Source)

Also known as: The Wandering Minstrel, An Ceoltóir Fánach, Cape Breton Jig, The Dandy Scholar, Guiness is Good for You

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The White Blanket (1726)

The title is sometimes known in Englished Gaelic as "The Suisheen Bawn." There are many and diverse variants of the melody. An early version of the melody appears in Neales’ Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes (Dublin, 1726), the first real collection of Irish folk music (Ó Canainn, 1978). O’Neill’s “The Maid without Dower” may be a related melody. “An Súisíin Bán” is also a sean-nós song that appears in Hyde’s Love Songs of Connaught (1893). Dr. Douglas Hyde (1860-1949) of Castlerea, County Roscommon was a scholar, a founder of the modern Irish theatre, and one of the seven co-founders of the Gaelic League. He was elected its first president, and later, in 1938 was unanimously acclaimed Ireland’s first president. (Source)

Also known as: An Súisín Bán, Súisín Bán, The Suisheen Bawn

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Youghal Harbour (1903)

Youghal is a sea-side town in the east of County Cork, Ireland; its harbor separates the counties of Cork and Waterford, where the Blackwater enters the sea. The name derived from the Irish word Eochaill, meaning ‘yew wood’ and speaks to the wooded condition of the area in ancient times. The town grew up along a strip of flat land that was easily defensible and provided access to the estuary, but other side of the harbor was prone to silting and was thus never developed. A steep slope situated behind the town led to development north and south along the water, resulting in a characteristic long narrow profile. Youghal was well-situated for trade having access to sea and the interior via the Blackwater, and became a famous port for the rich agricultural lands of east Cork.

Despite the ancient maritime heritage of the community, not every voyage was successful. In August 1849, Queen Victoria paid her first visit to Ireland at Queenstown (now Cobh) and a group from Youghal viewed the occasion. They had an adventurous journey on board the steamer Arab.

“During her short voyage, the vessel experienced a variety of casualties. When leaving Youghal, she came into collision with a schooner, and injured her. On reaching Capel Island, she took fire; but it was soon extinguished. She sank a boat in Cork Harbour, and periled the lives of two sailors in it; and on reaching the Royal Presence, her flag, which bore the Arms of Youghal, could not be lowered, it having fouled somewhere in the rigging” (A Handbook for Youghal). (Source)

Also known as: Calad n-Eocaill, Youghal Harbor (American spelling)

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