Finbarr Dwyer’s reel

I found this tune on a session recording I made in Drumshanbo in ‘97. Even with the low notes it sound great on the whistle. I’m just guessing that it’s a Paddy O’Brien tune as there were many flying by that week. Does anyone out there have hard info on this tune?

Note: "gan ainm" means "no name" in the Irish language.

As far as I can tell this is not a Paddy O’Brien tune. It isn’t amongst the hornpipes in his collection -
"The Compositions of Paddy O’Brien"
Nor is it one I have ever come across, realizing the limits of that statement. Paddy’s hornpipes, on the whole, like tend to mostly rise in the opening bar of the B-part.

Well, for starters it’s a reel, not a hornpipe.

Sounds like a home-cooked tune to me. There’s no repetition in the tune and the themes don’t match up. Could be wrong tho’.

One of the earliest compositions by the great Finbarr Dwyer. It’s taken me a while to get round to transcribing this, but I think was worth the effort. Don’t know why it isn’t better known, but if it enters a few repertoires through this posting, then that’s what this website should be about. I seem to remember my old buddy Bernie Stocks from Belfast had a transcription kicking round the internet somewhere, but in the key of “A”.
Posted in honour of Mrs “RonP”, who comes from that neck of the woods.

God, I can’t believe I forgot to submit this tune. I have it mostly transcribed (apart from the final 4 bars) and saved to ABC Navigator but it was an unfinished tunes from months ago. Well, thanks for posting anyway Kenny. Did you learn this from Finbarr’s album yourself or do you have a different source?

I know the Swallow’s Tail Ceili Band recorded it under the title "Finbarr Dwyer’s Berehaven" on their "hell for Leather" album.

As for the tune in A, well Finbarr himself played it in A a few months ago when he did a gig at The Merchant pub in Dublin. Check it out on youtube (I uploaded it!).

I see that it’s not showing up in the recordings because the recording of the Swallow’s Tail was submitted spelling Finbarr with one ‘r’. But that’s their problem so I’m not adding it as an alternative title. Finbarr uses 2 r’s and I’m not going to do otherwise.

On my copy of Pure Traditional Irish Accordion Music, this reel is the second one on the first track, given the title Gillespie’s. I don’t dispute that Berehaven is the correct name for the tune since Billy Moran always gave it the name Barehaven. Does anyone know the real (well, you know what I mean) name of the reel given the name "Berehaven" on this CD. It’s one in A that I learnt from somewhere else without a name and can’t find here.

https://thesession.org/tunes/4028

As Kenny points out, the reel Gillespie’s is a different tune which is "Donegal Traveller" and Finbarr plays it after Pigeon on the Gate. The Berehaven is a different tune which Finbarr plays after Trim the Velvet on track 7. The Berehaven posted by Kenny is indeed the actual tune, Berehaven as composed and played by Finbarr Dwyer.

Thanks for your help Kenny and PaddyCmusic. Turns out iTunes had gotten the names on these two tracks the wrong way around (Trim The Velvet/Berehaven was labelled as The Pigeon On The Gate/Gillespie’s and vice versa). To make matters more confusing, the tracks were in the right order by name (the first track was trim the velvet and berehaven but labelled pigeon on the gate). Glad to have a name for my Amaj tune as well. Thanks, kjay

I recently heard this tune in a session in Vermont. The guy played it as a reel and said it was a composition of Finbar Dwyer. I still like it as a hornpipe …

I have the first three notes of the second bar as DEG, not DGB. It is an excellent tune and a bit of a challenge to remember, as no two bars are the same.

This is a setting of Finbar Dwyer’s "Berehaven" ..

just got this tune from a super recording by maurice egan,maurice plays it in F major gorgeous

This is from Finbarr Dwyer recorded in Dolan’s music venue Limerick city in 2007.
It’s the first reel played, starting at 4:10.
He’s playing a D/D# box, using B/C fingering for G, so it comes out in A#.
On a C#/D box it will be in A as written here, which will be nice for fiddles, too.
I’ve given variations for the bars marked * and **, so the playback
will have those two extra bars at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVNV-p-hc-o

play video

I added one more variation, so they are now marked *1, *2, and *3
(and there will be four extra bars at the end of the playback).

Lovely, cheerful tune. Played fast it wld set anyone’s foot tapping *