Lady Birr reel

I learnt this off a Lunasa CD and I note it was not in the archive. Yes Dow I did a name search in the archive and an abc search, as well as checking the recording listing.
Lunasa got the tune from a group called Fisher Street (called after a street in Doolin).
I don’t know anything about Lady Birr herself but Birr Castle is in COunty Offaly and is owned by Lord and Lady Rosse who are into telescopes and the like - who needs relevance when you’ve got information!!
For the minority who might be guitarists reading this - it happens to be a great tune for flat picking in standard or Dropped D tuning.

Donough,
Isn’t this tune in Ador with f# ??

Tsk tsk Donough you obviously weren’t thorough enough, talk about substandard 😉

Well now I just have to hang my head in shame
I know I can edit the abc but can I edit the key???

Go to edit details and change the mode. The sheetmusic will stay as it is forever with no F#s. You could ruin the whole tradition because someone might learn it off your transcription and play F nats, and then play it in a session. The thought that that could potentially happen horrifies me. Donough, you should be ashamed of yourself.

If the changing the key on the “edit details” to Ador isn’t going to change the sheet music, then I will go in and edit the actual abc to put in the F#.
Will I then be granted some sort of Royal Dow Pardon??

I tried putting in the sharps but have taken them out again - That didn’t work either.
I now realise that the sheet music is written in indelible ink and I just hope that anyone learning the tune will read the comments first!

I told you Donough but you wouldn’t listen. The whole thing’s just an awful mess.

Gee Dow you really know how to make a fellow feel really good. Anyway I thought you were retiring from Tune Police Duty.

If I retired from tune police duty I wouldn’t know what to do with my time. I suppose I’d have to get on with what I *should* be doing 🙂

The version that gets played in sessions in Sydney where I live is not the Lunasa setting as posted but from the Fisherstreet album. Note the tune’s similarity to Down The Broom, btw, particularly in the 2nd part:

X: 1
T: Lady Birr
S: From a session, based on Fisherstreet “Out In The Night” version
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Ador
EAAG ABcd|eB~B2 efg2|GEDE ~G3B|cABG AGEG|
A2EA ABcd|eB~B2 efga|gedB ~c3e|1 gedB BAAG:|2 gedB BA~A2||
|:a2ea ageg|agbg agef|g2ef g2ef|geaf gede|
a2ea ageg|agbg agef|gedB ~c3e|1 gedB BA~A2:|2 gedB BAAG||

Francis O’Neill printed a version called “Jim Moore’s Fancy,” collected from a flute player of that name, with the alternate title “The Flowers of Michigan.” He later printed another version called “Morning Cheer” in “Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody.”

I agree, by the way, that it is a relative of “Down the Broom.”

Is this the same tune as Father Kelly’s? The B part sure sounds like the same as in the Father Kelly’s tune. I’ve been listening to the Lunasa version on Youtube and every time it gets to this tune in the set, I think Father Kelly’s.

lorilynn, perhaps you’re thinking of Down The Broom which seems to be another version of the same tune, as mentioned above. Or even The Star of Munster which has an almost identical B part except for the ending.
Father Kelly’s is completely different except for some similar patterns in the B part, albeit in a different key.

Pardon the broken links - looks like simple HTML doesn’t work here. Down the broom: https://thesession.org/tunes/514
Star of Munster: https://thesession.org/tunes/197
Father Kelly’s: https://thesession.org/tunes/971

The setting in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection of Flowers of Michigan (#390) is clearly related to the one in O’Neill’s and those above, but would clash if played with any of them. Nevertheless I’ve provided the link.