Finbarr Dwyer’s Favourite jig

Here’s a tasty little jig off Kevin Crawford’s In Good Company cd, track 11. He pairs it with what he calls the Rolling Waves, a jig that I know by the
name the Humours of Trim (which is similar but not the same as the jig I know as the Rolling Waves).

This is more or less my fiddle arrangement, based more Conor Tully’s playing than on Crawford’s flute. Take it at a moderate jig/almost marching tempo, and hang on the notes rather than hurrying to leave them.

From the liner notes: "Finbar Dwyer’s Favorite comes directly from Conor. I heard him play it in 1992 in Gort, Galway, where he and I were in an
unforgettable session with Tony Linnane, Padraig Mac Donnchadha, Terrence O’Reilly, and Frank McGann. Cheers to fiddler Theo Paige in Santa Cruz, California, for supplying me with a copy of a recording of this session. It brought back a lot of memories."

Very close to “Statia Donnelly”.

On my recent trip to Ireland, whenever I played this jig -- the B part of Statia Donnelly would show up. Evidentially they both share the same A part -- beware. Statia Donnelly seems to be better known and more widespread.

Statia Donnelly: https://thesession.org/tunes/1471

Little different spin on this from Mike and Mary Rafferty on their cd, The Dangerous Reel.

X: 1
T: Finbar Dwyer’s Favorite
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
D: The Dangerous Reel, Mike and Mary Rafferty
K: Dmix
|FGA cAA|BAG cAG|FGA cAG|Ad^c dAG|
|FGA cAG|Ade fef|dcA GEA|1 DED DAG:|2 DED DE/F/G||
A2 d d^cd|eag e2 A|dcA ~G3|AdB cAG|
|A2 d d^cd|eag e2 A|dcA GEA|1 DED DE/F/G:|2 DED DAG||

P.S. It’s the second tune on track 19, titled Joe Burke’s Jig because that’s who Mike got it from.

On his album Pure Trad on Accordion, he calls this tune John Dwyer’s.

Well that answers that question… they actually DID play jigs in that session… It must just be that the person flipping on and off the tape recorder at opportune moments was just looking to pick up reels at the time 🙂

“Just Piping” has this tune on there listed as McGreevy’s. I went and added that as an alternative name, but if you all think he’s wrong, I’ll take it down.

A 3-part version of this appears on Charlie Piggot, Miriam Collins & Joe Corcoran’s “Lonely Stranded Band”, incorporating the B-part of Statia Donnelly https://thesession.org/tunes/1471 as the last part:

X: 1
T: Statia Donnelly
S: Charlie Piggot, Miriam Collins & Joe Corcoran’s - Lonely Stranded Band
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
FGA =cAA|BAG =cAG|~F2A =cAG|Add d2D|
FGA cAG|Ade fge|dcA GEA|DED D2A|
FGA ~=c2A|BAG =cAG|~F2A =cAG|Add d2A|
FGA cAG|~f3 g2e|dcA GEA|DED D2B||
|:A2d dcd|fag efe|dcA G2B|A2B =cAG|
Add dcd|fag ~e3|dcA GEA|1 DED D2B:|2 DED D2c||
|:ded cAA|~f3 g2e|~d3 cAB|=c2B ~A3|
ded cAA|~f3 g2e|dcA GEA|1 DED D2c:|2 DED DAG||

This was composed by Finbarr’s brother John

Wowo. That’s amazing given that it was published in a tunebook exactly 50 years before he was born.

Yeah….I’ve always had this as Statia Donnelly. There seems to be a problem with members of this family claiming authorship of tunes that aren’t theirs- I agree with Dow. Not that they haven’t made very real contributions of their own, but (for example) the most recent one I’ve heard was Finbarr claiming Sean Ryan’s composition “The Trip to Nenagh” is actually a tune of his called “The Meadow”. Never heard a single peep about it until ages after Sean Ryan’s passing- how very convenient! C’mon lads- it’s not a bloody contest, and you’re already about as famous as traditional musicians get… Just STOP.

From the playing of Shane Mitchell and Declan Courell at mins ~25-27 of Slí na mBeaglaoich, Episode 5: https://www.tg4.ie/ga/player/seinn/?pid=6158266608001&title=Sligeach&series=Sl%C3%AD%20na%20mBeaglaoich&pcode=108548&genre=Ceol (also available here: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=235852484375704).