The Boys Of Portaferry (reel) on The Session

Ten comments

The Boys of Portaferry

I first learned this tune off a Cherish the Ladies compilation cd, "One and All: The Best of Cherish the Ladies." I’ve since heard it knocked around by a few other players, but not often. And somehow it’s even dropped out of favor at our local session. I’m hoping to bring it back.

I like the way it keeps trying to resolve to the notes that normally leave you suspended in G major—c’s in the A part and e’s and c’s in the B part. The 4th measure of the A part is just pregnant. Of course it never completely works out, so you get carried along waiting for the final resolve. For me, that comes by going from Boys of Portaferry straight into Kerryman’s Daughter in C maj:

|gedB c2 cA| into Kerryman’s |G~E3 GAcd|egdB cAAc| and so on.

It’s a bit of a finger twister on fiddle, especially uptempo, but it’s great practice for clamping onto a G doublestop and working on clean string crossings. And it works fine (as does Kerryman’s Daughter) at a moderate tempo.

You can simplify the B part by omitting all those triplets and playing |Bdgd edgd|, but it loses some of its momentum this way.

Anyobody have a different setting for Boys of Portaferry? The only other printed version I’ve seen is in the Krassen edition of O’Neill’s, and it’s almost identical.

As soon as I saw this I knew it would have been you who posted it. Will, this was one of the tunes listed in your "common session tunes" thread from ages ago, and I was surprised to see that it hadn’t been posted here. I have played this for a long while and keep trying to play it in sessions but no-one *ever* knows it or bothers trying to learn it. Perhaps if I played something loud and noticeable (like a fiddle maybe Will?) people would listen 🙂

I play this in a set that goes Bunker Hill/Boys Of Portaferry/Jenny Picking Cockles (Dmix version). I think they merge nicely into each other. For me, Bunker Hill wants to go into G…

don`

I was interested to find this tune - I haven’t heard of it before - since I was born in one of the villages around Portaferry and lived there for seven years. I return to the town every year (as I now live in Derbyshire).

The "Pullet": track 3 on "Tap Room Trio"

I posted the following question in the recordings section as well to increase its chances of being seen: Does anyone have a different name for the tune rendered by the Tap Room Trio and listed on the sleeve as "the Pullet"?