Mairtin O’Connor’s Flying Clog reel

Written by box player Phil Cunningham to commemorate a shoe kicked into the audience during concert, this quirky tune gives me fits on fiddle. The first four notes of the 2nd measure in Part A I play with fourth finger on second string, ring finger on third string, then 2nd finger on 2nd string, and back to the 4th finger. At speed, it’s challenging at best. Then Part B goes smoothly until measures 5 and 6. Phil plays back-to-back triplets: |BcdB cE (3EEE|(3EEE cE DGBG| and I’d love to follow, but for now have replaced it with a turn and then the triplet, which is how the fiddle does it on the cd.
A terrific tune for all you plectrum players out there, and the rest of us will try to hang on….
Will

just wondered have you adapted this tune to suit an instument, because in phil cunninghams book ‘house in rose valley’ the tune is written in f . admittedly, a hard key to tackle for fiddle on this tune! maybe its best stuck in this key!!

I pulled this off a tape given to me by a friend, apparently recorded straight from some cd. I transcribed it in the key played on the tape (and cd). It’s played by banjo, box (clearly Phil’s playing), and fiddle on the tape I’ll transpose it when I get the time, and see if I can’t find a more fiddle friendly key (although, surprisingly, F works okay for some tunes). Thanks for the suggestion.
Will

F it is! I just transposed it, and it’s much easier on fiddle. I don’t know how to explain the G major version on the tape I was given…could be they guy who dubbed it inadvertently sped it up (some tape machines do that), or possibly they played it in G on the cd. So I’ll post it again transposed down to F for all you fiddlers out there.
Thanks again to Lrn_fiddle for the heads up on the key.
Will

Jeremy—sorry to post this twice, but the tune apparently lives in the real world in both G major and F major, and the version in F works much better on fiddle (and probably on some other instruments as well). I didn’t want to leave people hanging without a transposed version. Sorry for any confusion, but I thought that working the tune out in both keys would be worth it (I’ve often found it useful to know tunes in more than one key, to accommodate whistle and concertina players in particular), and helpful to Session visitors who can’t readily transpose….
I certainly won’t make a habit of posting transpositions, but please let me know if you’d rather NEVER do it.
Thanks,
Will

Posting the same tune twice is perfectly fine as long as the settings are very different. Playing a tune in a different key would certainly count as a fairly large difference (we already have two versions of The Handsome Young Maidens in two keys).

Of course, this only applies when the tune is actually widely played in a different key (as is the case here). I wouldn’t transposed versions of tunes being submitted just for the sake of it.

There seems to be quite a few reels out there with "Irish" settings in the key of G and "Scottish" settings in the key of A. Miss McLeod’s would be a case in point. In such cases, submitting the Scottish version would make for an interesting comparison with the Irish version.

Key signature: G Major
Submitted on July 27th 2001 by cheshire puddy tat.
https://thesession.org/tunes/215

Key signature: F Major
Submitted on July 29th 2001 by cheshire puddy tat.
https://thesession.org/tunes/218

Submitted on March 25th 2007 by risto.
Key signature: G Major

"Mary Shannon plays this tune with the banjo in a set on one of Sharon’s CD’s."

R: reel
K: G Major
|: G,2 G,/G,/G, DG,B,D | EG,CE DB,A,B, | G,2 G,/G,/G, B,G,A,B, | "D" C "U" E, "D" E,/E,/E, G,E,D,E, |
G,2 G,/G,/G, DG,B,D | EG,CE DB,A,B, | "U" C "D" E, "D" E,/E,/E, G,E,D,E, |1 D,F,A,D B,DA,B, :|
2 D,F,A,D B,G,G,A, ||
|: B,D D/D/D EDGD | ED GD EG DC | B,D D/D/D EDGD | EAAG FEDC |
B,CDB, B,CCE, | E,/E,/E, CE, D,D,B,D, | CE, E,/E,/E, G,E,D,E, |1 D,F,A,D B,G,G,A, :|
2 D,F,A,D B,DA,B, ||

K: G Major
|: G2 G/G/G dGBd | eGce dBAB | G2 G/G/G BGAB | cE E/E/E GEDE |
G2 G/G/G dGBd | eGce dBAB | cE E/E/E GEDE |1 DFAd BdAB :|
2 DFAd BGGA ||
|: Bd d/d/d edgd | edgd egdc | Bd d/d/d edgd | eaag fedc |
BcdB BccE | E/E/E cE DDBD | cE E/E/E GEDE |1 DFAd BGGA :|
2 DFAd BdAB ||

W: Created with TablEdit ~ http://www.tabledit.com/

# Posted on March 25th 2007 by risto

"Mairtin O’Connor’s Flying Clog"
R: reel
K: D Major
|: D2 D/D/D ADFA | BDGB AFEF | D2 D/D/D FDEF | "A"G"U"B, "A"B,/B,/B, DB,A,B, |
D2 D/D/D ADFA | BDGB AFEF | "U"G"A"B, "A"B,/B,/B, DB,A,B, |1 A,CEA FAEF :|
2 A,CEA FDDE ||
|: FA A/A/A BAdA | BAdA BdAG | FA A/A/A BAdA | Beed cBAG |
FGAF FGGB, | B,/B,/B, GB, A,A,FA, | GB, B,/B,/B, DB,A,B, |1 A,CEA FDDE :|
2 A,C EA FA EF ||

# Posted on March 26th 2007 by ceili

My understanding is that the above transcription came as ‘ceili’ was trying to make sense of ‘risto’s’ previous low octave transcription which drags down to an incredible D, ~ but I wasn’t quick enough to catch ‘ceili’s’ comments to add here. Apologies to ‘ceili’. Maybe they will restate them here later?

This tune is *not* The Hounds of Letterfrack. This is the Phil Cunningham tune "Martin O’Connor’s Flying Clog". It was recorded by Sharon Shannon in a *set* called "The Hounds of Letterfrack", consisting of the following tunes:

1) "Martin O’Connor’s Flying Clog"
2) "The Slopes of Benbulben" - https://thesession.org/tunes/6511
3) "Tae in the Bog" - https://thesession.org/tunes/6489
4) "The Hounds of Letterfrack" - not yet in the database here

The banjo part in G transcribed above is one octave too low, and unplayable as is on a GDAE banjo. The correct setting one octave higher would work nicely capoed at the 5th fret.

# Posted on March 26th 2007 by MTGuru

"Thanks. Mary plays it in G, as it was, but the ABC is one octave too low. The ABC conversion is by Tabledit to which I notated the transcription. The program has odd capo settings to chance the pitch of the midi instrument and I just trusted it without checking the outcome."

# Posted on March 25th 2007 by risto

So, why did I post it ~ well, I have a couple of instruments that can play it that low, and it is a blast growling away way down there s-l-o-w-l-y, swinging it as a hornpipe, with some few differences…. 😉

K: G Major
|: (3cBA |
G2 (3GGG d>GB>d | e>Gc>e d>BA>B | G2 (3GGG B>GA>B | c>E (3EEE G>E (3DEF |
G2 G>B d>G (3Bcd | e>Gc>e d2 (3cBA | c>E (3EEE G>E (3EEE | D>FA>d B>d :|
|: A>F |
G>d (3ddd e>d (3ddd | e>dg>d e>gd>c | B>d (3ddd e>d g2 | e>aa>g (3fed c>A |
(3Bcd G>B B>c (3ccA | (3EEE c>E D>GB>G | c>E (3EEE G>E (3EEE | D>FA>d B>d :|

That can be played as is or an octave down to a low rumble if you’ve an instrument that can do it…

As I’d promised someone, here it is without the ‘>’ ~

K: G Major
|: cA |
G2 GB dGBd | eGce dBAB | G2 Gd BGAB | cE E2 GEDF |
G2 GB dGBd | eGce d2 cA | cE E2 GEDE | DFAd BG :|
|: AF |
Gd d2 edgd | edgd egdc | Bd d2 edgd | eaag fdcA |
BcdB BccA | E2 cE DGBG | cE E2 GEDE | DFAd BG :|

I got this tune from a flute player who said it was a banjo version. I hope I’m not too far from the heart of the tune. I really enjoy playing it anyway. Please let me know if you know of other versions.

Has this tune been recorded by North Cregg under a different name? I’ve been racking my brains to think where I’ve heard it before and I’m pretty sure it’s on one of their albums.

I know this as a Phil Cunningham composition titled "Mairtin O’Connor’s Flying Clog," in honor of the time Mairtin’s shoe launched into the audience, thanks to his enthusiastic marking of time with his foot.

I posted it here in G some 6 years ago: https://thesession.org/tunes/215

And here it is in the apparently original F: https://thesession.org/tunes/218

Tize, it shows up on North Cregg’s Summer at My Feet cd.

This brings back memories…

Sorry for the repeat. Thanks for the correction on the name. Now I’ll have to go find out who gave this version to the person I got it from and see if I can find out where it picked up this name. That’s what I get for learning tunes from people instead of recordings ;)

The fiddle version of this on the Woodchoppers Live CD plays a turn on C in that difficult second bar avoiding the jump over the A string. This makes the A part much easier to play IMO. ABC below:

X: 1
T: Mairtin O’Connor’s Flying Clog
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Gmaj
T: Mairtin O’Connor’s Flying Clog (Woodchoppers version)
|:G2 (3GGG dGBd|(cBc)e dBAB|G2 (3GGG BGAB|(cE) (3EEE GEDE|
|G2 (3GGG dGBd|(cBc)e dBAB|(cE) (3EEE GECE|1 DFAc BcAB:|2 DFAc BGGA||
|:(Bd) (3ddd edgd|edgd egdc|(Bd) (3ddd edgd|eaag fedc|
|BcdB ~c3 E|(3EEE (cE) DGBG|(cE) (3EEE GECE|1 DFAc BGGA:|2 DFAc BcAB||

..is play it fast n furious!

At a slower pace, the 2d part is reminiscent of The Conaughtman’s rambles, like

Bar five of part2’s good for practicing those c rolls! (I’m not talking to button pushers, only real musicians here! ;- )

Just a detail. Phil is not a ‘box’ player, but a piano accordion player !