Cheer Up Old Hag jig

Source: Patsy Hanly
I’m not sure this tune is a double jig.

Sounds similar to what Biginish recorded as “Bill the Weaver” on their first album. Maybe wrong.

You are right, slainte. Thanks.

The recording Whistle Stop doesn’t have this tune. It has a tune of the same name, also called Din Tarrant’s.

similar https://thesession.org/tunes/6298

Here’s yet another fine jig from Paudie O’Connor & John O’Brien’s “Wind & Reeds” CD. This one I’ve actually known for some time, but I didn’t see it in the tune DB, and since I finally have a title for it (I hate posting tunes as “Gan Ainm”), here goes! The notes say that the tunes in this set (I’ll be posting the others next) were learned from Cork fiddler Connie O’Connell, who in turn got them from Denis Murphy. Enjoy!

Johnny O’Leary called it “The Cat In The Corner”, in his recording “Johnny O’Leary Of Sliabh Luachra”.
A setting of this with the parts reversed is already in here as “Bill The Weaver”.
https://thesession.org/tunes/1693

This doesnt’ sound anything like the Cat in the Corner, which I’ve recently worked up into a medley witih Pipe on the Hob. Here’s “Cat” -
https://thesession.org/tunes/3867

The Beginish setting (on their first album as slainte says) is played with the parts reversed: X:2 above. The tune is rather reminiscent of “Over The Water To Charlie” as The Merry Highlander says, but it is somewhat removed.

As played by James Kelly, Paddy O’Brien and Daithi Sproule on ‘Traditional Music Of Ireland.’
(Setting #3.)

Dargai - this should go on the “Highway to Kilkenny” page (https://thesession.org/tunes/3599#setting3599), as it’s a different tune from the one on this page.

I like to play this one in Dmajor as here:
https://soundcloud.com/alfranreid/jigs-cheer-up-old-hag-the-connaughtmans-ramble

This setting appears in The Petrie Collection of Irish Music, part II, ed. Charles Villiers Stanford (1905), p. 207, no. 829 as “Cheer Up, Old Hag. Set by Lord Rosmore. From P. Coneely. 1845”.
The structure (which doesn’t appear in the score) is ABAB’A.

https://thesession.org/tunes/1693

but cheer it up old hag?

Since duplicated, c 2010, https://thesession.org/tunes/10178

I have been searching for info on a jig I learned from concertina teacher Tom McGonagle (County Down) as “Bill the Weaver”. It seems to be close to the Humours of Killarney and Cheer Up Old Hag, but with the two parts reversed. While trying to play the X4 version above in abc Navigator (I don’t read too well) I discovered that the time signature is wrong from that version. It’s actually a Slip Jig and should be 9/8 thus:
T: Cheer Up Old Hag
R: Slip jig
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|:G2g gag dBG|A2B ~c2d ecA|G2g gag dBG|1(3efg e faf gdB:|2(3ABc A BGE E2B|
|e2f ~g2e fdB|e2f ~g2a bge|gbg faf (3efg e|BdB AcA BGE|
e2f ~g2e fdB|e2f ~g2a bge|faf ~g2e dBG|(3ABc A BGE E2F||

I learned this jig from concertina player and teacher Tom McGonagle (County Down) in one of his 2020 online classes. It doesn’t match the Bill the Weaver listed on The Session as such (The Rolling Wave) but it is similar to some tunes listed here under ‘The Humours of Killarney’ and ‘Cheer up Old Hag’., but the parts are reversed. I like its simple structure nad it sounds like a sweet tune to me.
The tune has been recorded on a CD by Dylan Carlos, Cein Sweeney and John McCartin in a jig set with Jackson’s Rolling Jig and the Chapel Bell.

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

play video

Here’s the setting from O’Neill’s 1001, tune #992, under the title “The Humors of Kilkenny.”

Title from CRE5.81. I think the note says Breathnach obtained it from an RTE recording from around 1940 of Pádraig O’Keeffe. It also says it is a traditional air used as a slide. Apparently Owen Roe O’Sullivan (the great Munster poet from Sliabh Luachra, Knocknagree) used this air for one of his poems, Cois Abhan i nDé.
The song title might translate as Is that Silk in Your Wallet?