The Drunken Parson jig

I’ve been playing this one for years without knowing what it is called. I think I learned it off the radio as the third tune of a set that begins with “The Blackthorn Stick” in Amaj and “The Humours of Glendart” in Dmaj.

Please post the name if you know it! Thanks.

I think it’s “The Drunken Parson”, aka “Sile Ni Ghadhra” - you’ll need to ask an expert where to put the fadas. There’s a song/air that goes with it in which this bloke sees a beautiful woman on the “banks of a clear flowing stream”, so he tries to chat her up and flatter her with rhyming verse, but the unimpressed maiden basically tells him to get stuffed. The song is on Dervish’s “At The End Of The Day” but the jig isn’t.

S

Also known as Shilanagary.

This was arranged by Beethoven in WoO 154 (number 6), credited as the air “Chiling O’Guiry” and with the title “Put round the bright wine.” Key is F major.

Lyrics by William Smyth (1765 - 1849):

Put round the bright wine,
for my bosom is gay,
the night may have sunshine
as well as the day.
Oh welcome the hours!
when dear visions arise
to melt my kind spirit,
and charm my fond eyes.
When wine to my head
can its wisdom impart,
and love has its promise
to make to my heart;
when dim in far shade
sink the spectres of care,
and I tread a bright world
with a footstep of air.

Yes, mirth is my goddess,
come round me, ye few,
who have wit for her worship,
I doat upon you:
delighted with life,
like a swallow on wing,
I catch ev’ry pleasure
the current may bring:
the feast and the frolic,
the masque and the ball,
dear scenes of enchantment!
I come at your call;
let me meet the bay beings
of beauty and song,
and let Erin’s good humour
be found in the throng.

If life be a dream,
’tis a pleasant one sure,
and the dream of tonight
we at least may secure.
If life be a bubble,
tho’ better I deem,
let us light up its colours
by gaiety’s beam.
Away with cold vapours,
I pity the mind
that nothing but dullness
and darkness can find:
give me the kind spirit
that laughs on its way,
and turns thorns into roses,
and winters to May.