Father O’Grady’s Visit To Bocca reel

This tune is by whistle player Josie McDermott. The first part has an unusual shifting structure, which makes it very confusing to play.

It’s this: https://thesession.org/tunes/180.

Go here for another transcription: https://thesession.org/tunes/817.

T:Father O’Grady’s Trip to Bucca
M:4/4
L:1/8
S:Jason O’Rourke - The Bunch of Keys
R:reel
Z:gian marco pietrasanta
K:D
d3e fded|cAAG EG~G2|fded cAAG|EFGE D2de|
fded cAAG|EG~G2 A2de|fded cAAG|EFGE D4||
dcde fage|dfed cAFA|~G3A GE~E2|edcA GE~E2|
dcde fage|dfed cA~A2|fAdf gege|1fagc dABG:|2fagc dcde||

I believe that Altan’s version is the most listened to as they just called it “McDermott’s” which explains why it was submitted in 2005 under this name. Of course it does appear on The Session as “Father O’Grady’s Trip To Bocca” and it is composed by flute player, Josie McDermott. But there are many tunes with the name McDermott’s. Many times it is a different McDermott. The only shortcoming of this site is that once a tune, jig or reel is filed under one name (like McDermott’s) there is not room for another tune with the same name unless it is renamed. Or as in this case of the same tune appearing more than once under a different name.

“… named after a missionary priest from the townland of Bocca, near Ballydreen, Co. Roscommon. On a visit home, he gave Josie a flute and in return asked that “You’ll make a tune for me”. This is the tune.”

https://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Bockagh,+Ireland&aq=0&oq=bockagh&sll=42.746632,-75.770041&sspn=6.445331,9.876709&vpsrc=0&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Bockagh,+County+Roscommon,+Ireland&t=m&z=15&iwloc=A

The above link is from Google Maps and will show you the town-land that Father Peter O’Grady was born. He was born May 23 of 1907 to Peter Grady and Catherine Morrisroe, both from Bockagh, Ballaghadereen, Mayo which today is Roscommon. Ballaghadereen was in Mayo prior to the Irish Revolution and was then re-assigned/evaluated to be part of Roscommon.

Father Peter O’Grady was my granduncle.

This is not the tune McDermott’s on the CD “Round the House and Mind the Dresser”

No It is not the same McDermott. The name is not uncommon in both the South and the North of Ireland. McDermott’s is almost like having a tune called O’Brien’s name-wise that is. So there will be other McDermott tunes that do not come from Josie, like Master McDermott’s from a fiddle teacher who came from County Tyrone.

Played by Seamus Tierney, All-Ireland Senior Flute champion 2016 :

https://youtu.be/LEZfyXDFeXI

play video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBP6o-EQlcw

play video

Played by the composer himself first tune in the set:

https://youtu.be/U0YPsaIjJ8o

play video

This is a difficult tune on flute with phrases like “Adde” and “~G3 A GE ~E2 | edcA…” and so on.
It suits the North Connacht style of cuts and throat cuts, ( see Seamus Tierny video above ), so for legato flute players here it is ( Setting #4 ) as played something in the style of June McCormack.
Majestic tune though.

Peace Out
Pat

Reel as played by Altan, second tune in Curlew set on ‘Horse with a Heart’ known as McDermott’s

Setting for mouth whistling.

In the high octave of C Major. Wonderful chords published in the last setting, I have used them for this setting. There are some changes in the melody line, this is the setting I’m more used to play.