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Skin The Peelers slip jig

Also known as Barney’s Goat, Beimíd Ag Ól, Late Home At Night, Óró, A Thaidhg, A Ghrá, The Peeler Jig, Peeler’s, The Peeler’s Jig, The Peeler’s, The Peeler, The Peelers’ Jig, The Peelers’, Skin The Peeler.

There are 5 recordings of this tune.

Skin The Peelers appears in 3 other tune collections.

Skin The Peelers has been added to 1 tune set.

Skin The Peelers has been added to 24 tunebooks.

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Two settings

1
X: 1
T: Skin The Peelers
R: slip jig
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: Cmaj
|:"C"E2E EDE C2D|"^am"E2E EDE GED|"C"E2E EDE C2D|"^am"E2A A2E cBA:|
|:"^am"E2A, A,2B, C2D|E2A A2E GED|EGA A2B c2d|e2d cBA cBA:|
# Added by fiel .
2
X: 2
T: Skin The Peelers
R: slip jig
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
K: Gmaj
|: B2 B BAB G2 A | B2 B BAB dBA | B2 B BAB G2 A | B2 e e2 B dBA :|
|: B2 e e2 f g2 A | B2 e e2 B dBA | B2 e e2 f g2 a | b2 a g2 e dBA :|

Thirteen comments

From "Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music"

Posted by .

New glasses for me?

I think it is difficult to see on the gif, but the 2. and 3. note in the first bar of the second part IS A

Posted by .

Any notes available about the age of this tune/how far back it is known to date?

Sounds like an upside down version of Boys of Ballisadare…

Roche II, page 24, tune #255 "Skin the Peelers" ~ & predating "The Butterfly"

"The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music, Volume II", 1912

"Hop Jigs" ~ pages 24 - 28

X: 2
T: Skin the Peelers
M: 9/8
L: 1/8
R: slip jig
K: Gmaj
|: B2 B BAB G2 A | B2 B BAB dBA | B2 B BAB G2 A | B2 e e2 B dBA :|
|: B2 e e2 f g2 A | B2 e e2 B dBA | B2 e e2 f g2 a | b2 a g2 e dBA :|

"The Butterfly" is a muddled version of this, muddled, by all accounts, by Tommy Peoples mixing up two slip jigs… Because one is the better known, as is often the case, does not mean it is the ancestor. This one predates "The Butterfly"….

K: e minor ~ not ~ K: G Major

Correction to the above given transcription from Roche… Too many unkind distractions does not make a ^c… 😏

K: Emin

Hop or slip?

I note that in the Roche collection, cited by ceolachan, this tune is under Hop Jigs. And it does feel, to me, like one. For years I have had the sensation that the Butterfly ought to have been a hop jig, but it seems to be universally played as a slip jig. I am wondering whether hop jigs tend to be transformed into slip jigs (a short distance, obviously) because people do not dance hop jigs, or do not like them, or are not even aware of their existence.

A follow-up question

How would you play this tune in a session? Hop or slip?

ALL slip jigs in those early collections were called ‘hop jigs’…

The 3/4-3/8 transformation of 9/8 was in my mind just an interesting fancy some folks have for taking these tunes flat, without the customary skip/hop of slow-quick, or in the first beat of this transcription E2 E, the regular swing of the dance… But then, if you rip through them they naturally flatten out anyway in all that speed, like a hedgehog under a tyre…

Re: Skin The Peelers

This is in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection from 1883. It’s called Skin the Peeler there. You can find Barney’s Goat there too. They are listed simply as as ‘jig’. Both are similar or precursors to The Butterfly. I think there was a song in the 1700s similar too but I can’t find my source for that anymore…