O’Connell’s Trip To Parliament reel

I’ve tried to write this in its simplest form. It’s commonly heard in Sydney, I would guess thanks to Kevin Burke and Jackie Daly. A lot of people play those C#s in bars 1 & 3 as C naturals, making the 1st part Dmix, as transcribed @ Norbeck’s. I’ve also heard it played with C#s or Bs instead, however, and this is how I prefer to play it because for some reason I don’t like referring to Dmix so subtly. Of course this is my personal opinion, and other people might prefer the C naturals I’m sure.

I’ve also heard people play the 2nd part differently the 2nd time through, adding an extra "a2ge" riff making 3 in total:

[2nd time through] |f3a gfed|(3Bcd ef g2fe|a2ge a2ge|a2ge fdd2||

I actually find this a bit melodramatic and prefer to keep it simple by keeping it the same on the repeat, but again this is personal preference.

I’m keen to find out whether this tune is commonly played elsewhere…

Yes, Dow, this tune is quite commonly played, and quite often followed by "The Fairy Reel" as on the Daly/Burke recording. I think this was also many musicians’, (at least outside of Ireland), first introduction to the playing of Conal O’Grada, who guests on this track. Unsurprisingly it now seems to be very popular with flute players.

Anyone not familiar with Conal’s CD "Top of Coom", especially the fluters, is missing out!

The Top of Coom is a great album and a nice pub on the top of "Coom", a mountain not far fron Hammy Hamilton’s home.

I learned this second hand from Brendan Mulvihill who taught it exactly as written here.

This reel is recorded on "The Brule Boys of Paris" the first cd (now out of print) by the now defunct group Tickle Harbour from Newfoundland.

Does anyone know who wrote and any story behind it?

Here’s a little crumb of info on the tune background:
https://tunearch.org/wiki/Annotation:O%27Connell%27s_Trip_to_Parliament_(1)

Burke and Daly - ably assisted by Conal O’Grada :
https://youtu.be/RngsGqQl1C8

play video