The Four Courts reel

Requested by grymater. "De Danann" used to follow it with "Paddy Taylor’s" aka "McCabe’s". A great reel.

It seems related to "Within a Mile of Dublin," "Drowsy Maggie," and of course "Sleepy Maggie."

The A part is very like a reel played by The Boys of the Lough; they called it "The Wild Irishman". It’s also called "O’Rourke’s". The B and C parts are a significant departure. "The Four Courts" can be found in The Northern Fiddler.

Tinkerman’s Wife: https://thesession.org/tunes/4944

Sorry, I haven’t learned them yet. But "The Four Courts" is a rather well-known pipe tune, so I think I’m going to learn this first.

Christy Dunne calls this tune Toss the Feathers on his pluckin’ good album but it is clearly a mistake so I will not make it an alternative title.

X: 1
T: Four Courts, The
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
eA ~A2 eAfA | eA ~A2 d2 cd | eA ~A2 ~f2 fe |1 ~df ~f2 df af :|2 df ~f2 d2 cA|
B2 gB aB gB | ~B2 ge d2 cA | ~B2 Bg aBgB | fa ge d2 cA |
~B2 Bg aBgB | B2 ge d2 cd | ea ~a2 ag ea | ag ec d2 cd |
~e3 A ~f3 d | ~e3 c d2 cd | ~e3 A f3 e | d ~f3 dfaf |
~e3 A ~f3 d | ~e3 c d2 cd | ea ~a2 ag ea | ag ec d2 cd |

The Kilfenora play a lively version of this tune in the key of A on their Century CD and it’s the 2nd tune in this video of them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O50Vlq93VHA

play video

# Added by ceolachan - 31/03/2013
https://thesession.org/tunes/12650

the best version of this reel is on christy dunnes cd called plucking good he has it listed as toss the feathers great tune

The Kilfenora Ceili Band version (from the video above). They play the 3rd part as an intro, which gives a great lift after the preceding Em tune.

Played by "De Dannan" - Glasgow 1979 :
https://youtu.be/sR9ppZQUW8Y

play video