Repeal The Union jig

This jig is from Harry Bradley’s album, "The Night Rambler’s Companion". Directly quoting from the sleve notes of the album, the tune info is as follows:

"The first jig comes to us from one of the earliest known recordings of Irish Music; it appears on a wax cylinder recording of Uilleann piping created for the purposes of transcription by Feis Ceoil officials possibly as early as the year 1899. The piper thereon is Dennis Delaney of Galway"

Bradely, H. (2006) "The Night Rambler’s Companion", NRC006.

nice to see you doing your penance….wonder if SmashTheWindows will appreciate?;)

You cant get more traditional than this really, any further back and it’s almost medieval….Beautiful tune and played awesomely as always by Harry!

https://thesession.org/tunes/7777

I agree it could be seen as a slight duplication Prof., however it would be a different version of the tune you mentioned. This is a three part double jig rather than the two parter John Carty plays.

I didn’t say it was a duplication but it is a version of the same tune. To be honest I much prefer the Delaney version over the Carty one.

The original recording of it is here:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/musicfiles/mp3s/dinny_repeal.mp3


and he clearly names it ‘The Repeal of the Union’ in the introduction

"Delaney’s banter with the officials was reported in An Goadhal of July 1899:

Denis Delaney played a number of airs, from which were selected, viz, “The Woman of
the House on the Floor,” “The Kid on the Mountain,” “The Repeal of the Union,” and
“The Hag on the Hill.” The first is a translation of the Irish name. “The Repeal of the
Union” is a very fine tune. The piper played it in marching time and said it was also a
quadrille. It is really a double jig and its well-marked rythym no doubt induced the
Repealers to adopt it for a marching tune. His other tunes were also double jigs and the
first is descriptive of the lady of the house dancing. When the Repeal march was
mentioned, Dr. Joyce jocularly asked the player if Repeal were abandoned. “No,” said
Delaney, “until it is carried.” “But,” a spectator interposed, “it was rejected.” “Not
rejected,” retorted the piper, “it was half passed. Did you ever meet a cow that gave all
her milk at once?” and the discussion ended in laughter."

From "1.13 Piping contests at the Feis, 1897-1935" http://www.seanreidsociety.org/SRSJ1/Feis%20Ceol.PDF

This is a better setting than that 2 part version from Carty, but I agree with the Prof that Delaney’s is perfect. It’s just a matter of a few notes. Hope I’ve persuaded you to restore the correct title, too. Pat Mitchell or Jackie Small transcribed Delaney’s recording years and years ago, it was printed in Ceol an Piobarie and may be available at the NPU Source website now: source.pipers.ie

X: 1
T: Repeal The Union
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Gmaj
~G3 GBd | edB d2 g | bge edB |1 dBA B2 A |2 dBA cBA |
~G3 GBd | edB d2 g | age deg |1 aba gdB :|2 aba gab||
c’2 b a2 b | g2 b e2 g | dBd g2 e | dBG ABA |
~G3 GBd | edB d2 g | age deg |1 aba gab :|2 aba g3||
~G3 GBc | ded B2 d | cBc A2 c | BAB G2 D |
~G3 GBc | ded B2 d | cAF DEF | G3 DBA :|

Johnny Connolly plays it on his "An t’Oileán Aerach" recording from 1993. He plays it in D on what I presume is a D Melodeon, a fourth lower than the above versions in G. A magical recording by an extraordinary musician.

I notice that my last post on Conal Ó Gráda’s version is slightly wrong and doesn’t really give a real flavour of how he plays it so I’ve updated it above, as his version is the best I’ve heard

Wooo Fmaj!