The Dingle Regatta slide

This is a kind of silly sounding tune. It can be fun to play around with the melody in that third part to really bring out that silliness.

If you’re feeling particularly silly, you can liven up any session playing that third part as a mixture of musical chairs and mexican wave. On each of those long notes somebody stands up to play it. If the tune is going fast enough, this can look pretty ridiculous.

Ah, the silliness of it all.

This is actually in G, right?

Yeah, I guess it is actually in the key of G. But all the C’s are played sharp so easier just to give the key as D rather than add all the sharps.

All three of them? 🙂
Interesting, isn’t it? This sort of thing seems to be common, the G tunes with the sharpened Cs. You can tell it’s in G because of the chords that go with it, and the fact that it ends in a G note.
If we want to be sticklers, i also think it’s a slide instead of a jig. But that’s more subjective.

Durn, you already had it as a slide, sorry.

But the bars are still too many, i think. 🙂
OK, back to work now.

Thought this tune was a 6/8 jig what ever that is the way I learned it though.

For some unknown reason anyone who has anything to do with Morris dancing is likely to stand up during the third part of this yelling “Da da da ditty da”.

I find that if the opening phrase is played D-B-D instead of D-C#-D then it rules out all confusion as to the key and makes it a straightforward composition in G.
Second part I play an octave down (mandolin or guitar).
Third part, instead of a straight G D B G I ornamentt the B as a BDB triplet, adding a bit of fun to it.

Cheers!

I dunno, this one always makes me think of Bibbetty Bobbitty Boo.

The Pogues play this. It’s on Red Roses for Me. They play the C part quite differently though.

During the third part, in our session there will usually be a few people who sing:

"Heigh, ho! the Dairy-O!
It’s four o’clock in the morning!
Heigh, ho! the Dairy-O!
It’s four o’clock in the morning!"

Chris Droney plays a two part version of this tune on his album “The Fertile Rock”.

He plays the third part of this version as the first of his own and the B part of his own is the second part of the one posted here.

ie Instead of ABC form its CB (in relation to the version posted here).

He calls it Slattery’s Grove.

…The selection of jigs which includes Slattery’s grove on Chris Droney’s album were recorded by the Kilfenora Céilí Band in 1967. I don’t know of any other source for the title myself though and whether the Kilfenora called the tune Slattery’s Grove or was it a name he had for it himself.

The O’Riada’s score, dated from 1963, for the above named film contains this tune played the way it’s written here by Ceoltoiri Cualann.
You can see the following comment about the name of this slide here :
https://listserv.heanet.ie/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9804&L=IRTRAD-L&P=R42451&D=0
Al

The Slide Dingle Regatta was made famous by O’ Riada & The Cheftians It was a mix up from two other tunes the first part is a very well liked slide played a lot around North Cork.
Can anyone let me know the name of this slide or if I am so lucky someone give me the sheet music for same?

Really? That’s fascinating, I had no idea and we love to play the Dingle Regatta at our sessions. I’ll look forward to and hope you get more info here!

Hello, there is a great version of the Dingle Regatta on Seamus Creagh’s album Came the Dawn. There are only two parts, the usual first part you mentioned and a different second part, no third part. Perhaps it is the version you seek. Best of luck.

pogues also do a great version of it on the squeezebox

Here is an interesting variation for the C part:

|: gbg dgd | BdB GBG | FAF DEF | GA_B =Bde |
gbg dgd | BdB GBG | FAF DEF | G3 G3 :|

“Yeah, I guess it is actually in the key of G. But all the C’s are played sharp so easier just to give the key as D rather than add all the sharps”

You mean it’s in the G Lydian mode?

Who was responsible for the 3 part version of this tune?
Was it Sean O Riada?

Don’t forget the actions when you play it.

… not to mention the words.

… which I tend to shout out at the top of my - rather loud - voice, particularly in very crowded sessions. I achieved embarassed shuffles and nervous looks at a session in N Wales (or close) over Christmas. I counted that as a success.

There are words?

https://thesession.org/tunes/23

Those aren’t the words I sing though. I sing the ones I’ve learnt over the years, specifically from Peter Kennedy, and less specifically in various sessions in Ireland.

My words go:

"Hi ho!
Diddley-ho!
[gap]
Hi ho!
Diddley-ho!"

Good, aren’t they?
😀

Tiz Dingle Regatta - not Dingles Regatta.

(Dingle Bay, Co. Kerry)

… a tune that’s rarely played these days.

… but when it is I’m all for using the lyrics and the jumping-up and-down-in-time-with-the-waves bit.

Problem is, no-one seems to know about this tradition, and they all just stare at me as if I’ve gone stark staring mad …

… which I am! 😉

Well, come up to a session I’m at and we can be bonkers in unison, Mr Mix. 🙂

It should be Dingle’s then Mix as the mustard board appears to be heading for zero tolerance approach to no apostrophes ..sorry apostrophe’s. Grrr’r.

I understood the 2 part version was the original.

it is in the key of G, it is not in the key of D.

Count me in for bonkers…

G resolution is only with the 3rd part sc, but even there it isn’t G Major…

This transcription, 3rd part ~

|: g3 d3 B3 G3 | FGA DEF G2 A Bde | g3 d3 B3 G3 | FGA DEF G6 :|

& now working some Cs into it, all sharp ~

~ | a2 g f2 e dd/e/f g2 c/d/ :|
|: g3 d3 BdB G3 | FF/G/A DCD G2 B def | gbg dcd B^AB GFG | FGA DEF G6 :|

Tune version #4 above is an early 19th century version (in G major), called “Garcon Volage” (trans. “Fickle Lad”), from William Winter’s Quantocks Tune Book. I have added the repeat signs. It is also found in a collection of Thomas Hardy and Hook manuscripts in the Dorset County Museum, and in the Massicote Manuscript (1827-1828) in the Vaughan Williams memorial Library.

William Winter (1774-1861) was a village shoemaker in Somerset, a fiddle player (possibly also a flautist), playing in the church band (church organs were expensive and uncommon in those days) and for village dances and festive occasions. During 1848-1850 he compiled his tune book of over 400 tunes, the manuscript of which was lost but in 1960 rediscovered in a London second hand bookshop.

William Winter’s life and music will surely stand alongside that of other English country dance musicians such as John Clare, Thomas Hardy and Michael Turner.

The manuscript has been scholarly researched and edited by Geoff Woolfe, and published in 2007 by the Halsway Manor Society, Crowcombe, Somerset. There is a lot of history associated with this music.

I am indebted to Geoff Woolfe’s notes in the published edition for the above information.

The book includes a CD of 31 of Winter’s tunes played by Robert Harbron (English concertina), Nancy Kerr (fiddle), Miranda Rutter (fiddle), and Tim van Eyken (melodeon).

One of Winter’s tunes - “When Wars Alarmes” - has recently been used by the folk band Spiro in a track on their album Kaleidophonica.

Regarding some bonkers session performances of Dingle Regatta I am quite content to remained seated and vocally quiet, relying on my age card 😉

Piping version

X:6 is very similar to the version ein Geralsine Cotter’s tin whistle tutor.

This was written by Tom Billy Murphy of Ballydesmond, and was a very popular slide in the area. I know he did not call it the Dingle Regatta, however. I would think he had written it by the ’30s.

Joe Joyce went over from Boston and picked up the jumping as well as the tune name. I am unsure if this was in his visit to Cobh in ’53 as a stowaway or during a later visit. I suppose a lot can happen in 20 years, but I have to wonder, where the heck did this stuff come from?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tEcFqYKaXY

play video

This is mostly V1 with 2 small note changes but spread across 6 lines instead of 3 for old eyes!

For the two part version see Tom Billy’s Favourite / Quarry Cross
https://thesession.org/tunes/15412
The notes suggest how the three part version was formed. Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra has a similar version, which he called Denis Murphy’s (#32)
For the third part, see Kilcummin Slide (JO’L #91) or Spring in the Bog
https://thesession.org/tunes/10855
According to these notes this tune dates from 1820

Don’t make fun of me , but I have played this as a round. ( you have to be sure to keep the chords simple)