Six comments
Really nice tune, seldom played
I learned this one from the Cathal McConnell pennywhistle course. I think it is associated with the playing of Micho Russell. It’s a terrific tune to play at a medium tempo with a bit of lilt. Very satisfying. Triplet figures would also fit quite nicely into a few places to give a little extra bounce, if that suits you. It would probably make a fabulous concertina tune.
I just noticed this being played on an old private recording of New York fiddlers Lad O’Bierne and Louis Quinn.
Fair-Haired Boy - the reel
Here’s the way Michael Hynes plays it on the recording he made with Dennis Liddy called, ‘Waifs And Strays (Traditional Irish Music From County Clare)’.
X: 1
T: Fair-Haired Boy, The
S: Michael Hynes
Z: Jack Gilder
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
~A3G FGAB|=cAdc BG~G2|ABAG FAdg|fdec Add2:|
~f2df efde|~f2df ecA2|~f2df efde|fdec Add2|
~f2df efde|~f2df ecA^G|ABcd efge|afge fdd2||
This has a similar A-part to Last Night’s Joy https://thesession.org/tunes/6010.
Another “Micho Russell’s”
This appears to be the tune played on the Molloy-Keane-O’Flynn album "Fire Aflame" they list as "Micho Russell’s. A search for a reel named Micho Russell’s on TheSessions gives back many different tunes of that name — which only have in common the name itself!
The Fairhaired Boy, X:3
As played by Gavin Whelan on his album In Full Flight (2009). As others did (noted above) he calls it "Micho Russell’s".