The Rollicking Boys Of Tandragee jig

A popular tune played in my sessions. Here is a variation -

BAB EEE|BAB d^cd|BAB DDE|FED FGA|
BAB EEE|BAB def|edB AFA|BEE E2A|
BAB EEE|BAB ddd|BAB DDE|FED E/2F/2GA|
BAB EEE|BAB def|edB AFA|BEE E2A||
:Bee edB|def afd|edd dBA|Bdd d^cd|
Bee edB|def afd|edB AFA|1 BEE E2A:|2 BEE E3||

…is the name I have for this tune. Played by Tommy Peoples on one of his early recordings (High Part of the Road??)–he follows it with “Geese in the Bog.”

This version named Boys of Tandernagee is as played by Arcady (great band) on ‘After the Ball’ - I feel it flows a bit better than the version of Linnane’s here.

d|:~B3 ~E3|BAB d2B|ABA DED|AFD FGA|BAB ~E3|BAB def|edB AFA|BEE E2A::\
B2e efe|def afd|e2d dcd|Bcd dBA|B2e efe|def afd|edB AFA|BEE E2A:|

According to Harry Bradley, this tune is related to “Over the Hills” (https://thesession.org/tunes/842).

We play this in D minor round here. Not saying that makes us better, of course…

I think the song ‘Rollicking Boys of Tanderagee’ can be found on Paddy Tunny’s recording, ‘A Wild Bees Nest’

Pete Kiddle

Also on Kitty Hayes’ A Touch of Clare under the name Jackie Daly’s

https://thesession.org/recordings/1478

Track 3: “Jackie Daly’s”

You can listen to a nice concertina and fiddle duet playing of this jig here: http://www.myspace.com/maireadhurley

Mairead Hurley is from Ballymote and won the All-Ireland a couple of years ago. I know a few members of the Hurleys personally, but have never met her yet. I don’t know anything about the fiddler Jacqui Martin. I guess they play together on a regular basis somewhere in Dublin.

http://unitedireland.tripod.com/boys_of_tandragee_lyrics_guitar_chords.html

Good luck to all here now barring the cat that sits in the corner there smelling a rat
Ah whisht you philandering girls and behave and saving your presence, I’ll chant you a stave
I come from a land where the praties grow big and the girls neat and handy can dance a fine jig
And the boys they would charm your heart for to see they’re wonderful fellas round Tandragee

Chorus: So here’s to the boys who are happy and gay
Singing and dancing and tearing away
Rollicksome, frollicksome, frisky and free
We’re the rollicking boys around Tandragee

No doubt you have heard of Killarney I’m sure and sweet Inishowen for the drop of the pure
Dublin’s the place for the Strawberry Beds and Donnybrook Fair for the cracking of heads
Did you e’re see an Irishman dancing poltog, how he faces his partner and turns up his brogue
He shakes at the buckle and bends at the knee, they’re wonderfull dancers round Tandragee

Chorus

The oul’ jaunting car is the elegant joult, and Derry’s the place that is famed for the hoult
Among the green bushes that grow in Tyrone, and the County Fermanagh for muscle and bone
But for feasting and blarney and fun at the fair there’s none to compare with the Rakes of Kildare
Green Erin’s my country, the gem of the sea, but the gem of oul Ireland is Tandragee

Chorus

Now where is the man either Christian or Turk could equal the bold Robert Emmet or Burke
Where is the lawyer could speak up like Dan, there’s devil another, bad luck to the one
And where is the singer could sing like Tom Moore, whose melodies charm every care from your door
We’ll beat them all yet boys, and that you will see, sure we’re rearing fine fellas round Tandragee

Chorus

“Tandragee” - sung by Colm O’Donnell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plGA0bMPpwA

play video

“Tandragee” -sung by Tommy Makem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFooAQE2Iro

play video

Jigs: “The Boys from Tandragee” / “The Woods of Old Limerick”
- Conor Keane on the button box
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfGHYRURQEM

play video

I believe the words above are by Colum Sands.

That would be good to confirm. I wish our library was more accessible ~ a long story. I’ve seen different ordering of the verses, as well as some differences in their content, though clearly identified as the ‘same’ basic content. I’ve also heard it adjusted as “The Girls from Tandragee”…

The Clancy Bros attribute those words to Colum:

http://clancybrothersandtommymakem.com/lyrics_b1.htm

Colum apparently got the song from Paddy Tunney of Fermanagh, but he does adjust words to suit.

I have absolutely no idea what the name of this tune are, so I don’t hope it’s duplicate. I have heard this one with De Dannan live At The Embankment 1976 on TG4. If anyone know the name I will be glad.

It’s “The Boys of Tandragee” https://thesession.org/tunes/1392

Watch Colm Gannon play the jig on the melodeon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZmkHejGsoU

play video

Personally I’ve always found this lovely jig to be more commonly played in Dmix rather than Em, so here it is in that key, as played by the inimitable Finbarr Dwyer:

X: 5
T: The Boys Of Tandragee
S: Finbarr Dwyer
R: jig
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
K: Dmix
AGA DEC | AGA ~c2G | AGE C3 | G,CC G,CC | AcA DEC | AGA cge |dcA GEG | A2D D3 :||
daf ded | cde gag | ged ~c3 | Acc Gcc | dfA ~d3 | cde ~g2e | dcA GEG | ADD D3 :||

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8p6XLO16qiA

play video

A version by Four Winds (Daoirí Farrell, Bouzouki; Tom Delaney, Uilleann Pipes; Caroline Keane, Concertina; Robbie Walsh, Bodhran.) - rollicking indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xumkxoV9c_I

play video

https://thesession.org/tunes/10967

a setting from the playing of Conor Keane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfGHYRURQEM&feature=youtu.be

play video

I have heard the “Pat Burke’s” version in Dmix from Galway fiddler Lucy Farr, box player Vince O’Halloran, and Cavan lilter Séamus Fay. I’m assuming it’s the same tune under a different name and slightly variant setting.

Can anyone tell me what key Conor Keane is playing this tune in?

If it helps, I can play along with that using an “Eb” whistle, playing in “Eminor”, if you know what I mean. If he’s a semi-tone sharp of “concert” pitch, would that make it in “F minor” ?

Lucy Farr’s version, which I’ve transcribed without some of her gracing Love it..

This is litter Séamus Fay’s version, again transcribed without some of the “diddles”. I love this tune in Dmix, I don’t know why - the E minor versions just don’t sound right for some reason.

Lilter, not litter.

Paddy Tunney said he learned it from his Uncle Mick (Michael) Gallagher. It was recorded by the Tunney family in 1952, when Colum was less than a year old. Precocious wean! A Sean Nos teacher told us that it was written in the 1800s to poke fun at the very straight-laced (at the time bordering on Puritanical, according to him) citizenry of Tanderagee (now called Tandragee). Its lyrics and especially the chorus were therefore intended to be entirely satirical, although the tune has such a great drive and dynamic that it will always be performed with joy, and of course it’s been so long that probably there *are* many fine dancers ’round Tandragee these days!

This version is from the concert of Finbarr Dwyer recorded in Dolan’s music venue Limerick city in 2007.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNV-p-hc-o

play video

His version is E major (on the recording he’s a half step higher).
Of course he plays lots of variations, but the main two are shown in the B part.
Sometimes he plays them in the order given, and other times in the reverse order.

Finbarr Dwyer played B/C fingering on a C#/D box, so tunes would come out in E, but they’re just normal D fingering on a B/C box, FYI. It’s possible that he also used a D/D# box, or the recording was higher pitched due to playback/recording speeds.

I played B/C for about 20 years, then switched to C#/D for the last 15 years or so.
So now I want to look at the tune written in E to get the sound Finbarr had.
I’ll put his setting through the transposer to get it D for the B/C players.

Finbarr Dwyer’s setting in D major.

Naw - just listen to the playback on that last 2 “settings” you posted there.

Sorry. The one from the recording should be in A major, not E major.
So, the transposed one is in G major.
Also, I had put in the variations in the B part with a [1 …, [2 … in the middle of the part.
And it looked fine, but I guess that’s not allowed, so it “automatically”? corrected
but ended up with an extra bar (?? I don’t know why).
Anyway, they are corrected now and the “Play Audio” sounds sensible now.

Correction: They are in E mix and D mix (not A major and G major – same key signature).

Hi Mark - that makes a lot of sense - I don’t think there’s any issue with the first setting, I just wanted to make that comment so anyone reading it would get an insight into Finbarr’s style. It’s funny, because if you’re used to playing C#/D box, then you would need to mentally transpose to get it up where Finbarr played it, whereas if you’re used to playing B/C, you just pick up a different box. Technically it’s exactly the same thing (it is, after all, the same fingering), it’s just the mental aspect behind it that’s different.

Hi Nico,
Everything you wrote is right, but, of course, there’s more to what Finbarr did than just
playing B/C fingering on C#/D box. His choice of notes, ornamentation, timing, etc… is unlike anyone else.
This tune, The Boys of Tandaragee, is usually played in E minor, so the concept of putting it into mixolydian
mode (whether Dmix or Emix) is Finbarr’s own idea.
(It seems fairly common to his versions of tunes that he likes the thirds to be major rather than minor,
at least some of the time.)
So it’s not like people would think “Oh, that’s the usual D version played up a step”. Instead they think
“Wow! The usual version reimagined to use G#s, octave jumps, and cool variations!”

That’s all very good information! Finbarr was such an inventive and amazing player. Thanks, Mark!

What a gem of a recording. I know nothing about playing the box but you’re spot on, Finbarr just imagines tunes differently from anyone else. Listen to originals like Beare Island or Star of Ireland - a clear tonal center around E but he’ll sharp or natural the G and D at will. It doesn’t fit our neat idea of a major or minor key and sounds ‘unexpected’ until you get your head around what Finbarr is hearing.
And what a touch on the piano, my goodness McGrath follows Finbarr’s intervals like a swallow.
Anyway, you have to put something in the ABC but in my view it’s not Emix or Emin, you have it right when you say it’s both, the usual version but using G#s in unusual places. He works the same magic on Cuil Aodh, following. Thanks for posting.

This is clearly a version of The Hills of Glenorchy.

The Ricard Dwyer audio is in F Dorian. Whether he’s playing on a b/c box or something else the pitch is still F Dorian. The key signature has 3 flats (same as Eb major).
However, if the recording is at a faster speed then he may well be playing in E Dorian

Did you mean Finbarr Dwyer? There’s no link to a Richie Dwyer (or to “Ricard”) recording here…

In any case as already mentioned, the audio is a half step higher, either because he’s playing a D/D# box or because the audio is incorrectly sharp. The convention, long established, is to write out music as if for a concert pitch instrument, despite the absolute pitch. So if I were to play an Eb flute, or a set of B uilleann pipes, or a box that’s a half-step higher than normal, I would write the music out as if it was a normal D flute, D pipes, or regular box. The issue here is that there are actually two “normal” pitches of button box, B/C and C#/D, both thought of as concert pitch. Finbarr Dwyer was essentially a B/C box player who would play a C#/D or D/D# box as if it were a B/C box (there’s more nuance described above, of course), but ultimately the convention would be to transcribe the music as if it were a concert pitch box, so either Emix or Dmix depending on whether you’re thinking of B/C or C#/D as the concert pitch box in question.

I don’t agree that it’s dorian because the 3rds are sharp, although he does avoid them often.

Yes I did mean Finbarr Dwyer and also that it is mixolydian. Thanks.