The Moving Bog reel

S:Joanie Madden

“this is the tune, as played and taught by Joanie taught by Joanie Madden in the whistle workshop at the 1999 CCE Convention in Parsippany, New Jersey, USA on April 10, 1999”

Tom Madden from his notes on notation handed out by Joanie Madden

This tune is in Brendan Breathnach’ s “Ceol Rince” Vol 1 as “The Moving Bog” - reel #130.

Ah, I don’t know how I couldn’t find this tune before. I heard it played by Matt Cranitch’s father, Senate Michael Cranitch on Siar an Bothar ages ago. Nicolas Carolan called it “The Moving Bogs of Powelsboro”. I really like this tune and I got a recording of it on i Gcnoc na Grai by Tony MacMahon and Noel Hill.

Please would you be able to sort out the dots for this one? At the moment it links to a gan ainm posted by zina. Thanks in advance.

From the fiddle and flute duet playing of Kevin Moloney and Sean Moloney. Kevin was one of the original members of Ballinakill Traditional Players together with his father Stephen Moloney and Tommy Whelan. Sean is Kevin’s nephew and a son of legendary E. Galway flute player, Eddie Moloney.

On their recording, this tune is played with Miss Johnson and Miss Thornton.

This version is slightly different from the one in O’Neill’s. There are several similar tunes, notably Micho Russell’s (aka Sean Reid’s Fancy): https://thesession.org/tunes/2509

I have no doubt this is already on the site under what is the more usual name these days, “The Moving Bogs.”

You’re quite wrong there, “blarneystar”. “The tunes titled ”The Moving Bog[s]" posted here are nothing like this, unless I missed something.
Good man for posting this , “slainte”. I was taught this tune at a Willie Clancy flute class in the mid 80s by P.J.Crotty RIP]. He recorded it on the CD with the Cullinanes a few years ago. It does bear similarities to quite a few other reels in “G”. A fine flute tune, which I must start playing again.

Maybe an apology due to “blarneystar” - it is very like the “Moving Bogs” I know, - but nothing like the “Moving Bogs” posted here by Gian Marco. Like “blarneystar”, I would have thought that tune to have been posted here already, but maybe not, and that would be surprising, unless it’s lurking under a different name.
I think PJ’s version was more like the version in “O‘Neill’s” than the Moloney’s version as posted here by “slainte”. I’ll hunt out PJ’ s playing of it in the Miltown class, and post it as an alternative, because there are some differences. Sorry, “blarneystar”.

No problem Kenny. Tune titles move around a lot, probably because musicians remember both titles and tunes but often can’t recall which goes with which.

According to the liner notes of Danish band Moving Cloud’s CD “Sweet Nyaa” this tune was composed by fiddle player Paddy Sweeney, who was a native of Powelsboro, a little place between Tubbercurry and Ballymote. The title of the tune refers to a natural phenomenon which occasionally occurs when water pressure causes part of a bog to move or slide.
That’s the first tune, the one in G, that was composed by him.

I’ve also added Moving Cloud’s version of this tune, see version 3 above.

The set played by Peter Conlon and James Morrison: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2helr_qXFQ

play video

I suddenly realised this tune is closely related to The Sandymount: https://thesession.org/tunes/176

Frank Quinn (1893-1964) of Greagh, Drumlish, Co. Longford recorded this tune on the fiddle in May 1924. It was the first tune in a set entitled “Miss Wallace’s Reel” (The second tune was a version of “Rakish Paddy”). He probably learned it from O‘Neill’s book where it appears under that title. I transcribed his version and it follows O’Neill’s version closely.

The non-abbreviated spelling of the townland name is “Powellsborough”. A 1966 set from Jimmy Power:

http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Reg-Hall-Archive/025M-C0903X0263XX-0100V0

Taken from ‘A Fine Selection of Over 200 Irish Traditional Tunes for Sessions’, compiled by David Speers with a Forward by Matt Cranitch. Lovely tune, those accidentals give it a haunting feel.

As so very often, H. Norbeck’s version is the most accurate one. It’s exactly as I’ve heard it being played in Clare and beyond.

from Philip Duffy’s version on the Mountain Road CD of South Sligo players. Note how he avoids the high f’s (sharp or natural??) by going up to g in the first part. I love how the c#’s and c-nat’s trade off in this tune. He follows it with a lovely version of Michael Reilly’s Reel.

Here is The Wallace Twins, very close to The Moving Bog, in the setting published in O’Neill’s Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody (1922), no. 281.
Enjoy !

A moving bog is sinister, hoping never to fall in one… Pleasant tune, though.