The Galtee Hunt hornpipe

One of the favourites in our sessions here for the last one or two years. We play it in a medley (I used to call it a "set" but I

I like this tune a lot, I learned it from a Maggie Sansome hammered dulcimer cassette years ago, but so few people out here play it. As you point out, it is a set dance, you can tell by the odd number of measures in the second part. I’ve never heard or seen it with dancers, I’ve no idea what tempo would be ‘correct’

Thanks for jogging my tune memory about this one

Mike Euritt

Unfortunately this set dance is not a standard one as set down by the Irish Dancing Commission. It is not even standard in An Comhdhail (another dancing organisation which have the 30 standard commission ones + about 10 more). It is however played in a smaller oranisation called the Festival Dancing Teachers Association, although not for a few years now.

This is a gorgeous tune, and I think it is better played a bit slower than standard HP speed. The dancing speed would be about 74 bpm (cf 113 bpm for standard HP).

At the fiddle recitals of this years willie week martin hayes started his 3 tunes mini gig with this. he started it slow and almost shy to polish it just a little bit and make it shine beautiful. It was not played like a hornpipe - more like a typical hayes slow reel…

I remembered faintly that I know that tune and started searching: found it on clannad

This is a recognised set in step dancing. It is refered to as ‘The Hunt’ and the setting is slightly different. It was recorded on Conor Keane’s cd a few years back.

The Hunt, a very closely related tune, can be found here:
https://thesession.org/tunes/2653/comments

This is a set dance not a hornpipe

Here’s a reasonably faithful transcription of Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill’s version on Welcome Here Again. Although they do it in a different key, I’ve posted it in G for consistency, and you can transpose to whatever key you like.
X: 1
T: Galtee Hunt, The
S: Welcome Here Again : Martin Hayes & Dennis Cayhill
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: set dance
K: Gmaj
D2 | G>AB>G A>G E2 | ~c>Bc>A B>AG>E | G>AB>G A>GE>D | E>A ~A>G A>cB>A |
G>AB>G A>G E2 | c>Bc>d e>cg>e | ~d>BG>B A>G (3DEF| ~Gz G>F G2 :|
|:(3DEF | G2G>B d2d2 | e>gf>d e2 d2 | ~e2 d2 g2 d2 | e>dB>e d>B (3GAB |
c4 c>eg>e | B4 B>AG>B | ~A4 A>G E2 | g>fg>b (3agf g>e |
d>BG>B A>GE>D | c>Bc>d e>c g>e| d>BG>B A>G (3EDE| Gz ~G>F G2 :||

Source: Dulaman by Clannad
Transcription: Gian Marco Pietrasanta

Cormac Begley and Jack Talty play this after An Súisín Bán on their album: ‘Na Fir Bolg’. The whole album is incredible, and this is one of my favourites from it!