The Shady Road To Clamper polka

Source: Dan Herlihy - the night of the fair
Transcription: gian marco pietrasanta

I know this polka named after a Wexford musician, Phil Murphy who played harmonica. Phil Murphy lived at Bannow on the Wexford coast. He passed on in 1989 I think and there is a weekend trad. music festival each August down in Bannow named after him.

See also
http://www.philmurphyweekend.com
for more info. on Phil and also reel ‘Trip to Cullenstown’ on this site. Cullenstown is local townland in Bannow.

This tune is fairly well known in Scotland as "The Hopeful Lover". The Mull accordionist Bobby MacLeod noted that the first 8 bars were traditional, while the second 8 bars were composed by him. Source: Bobby Macleod’s Selection (Glasgow n.d.).

This tune is nicely done on the Murphy family album Trip to Cullenstown where it travels under the title "The Wistful Lover". There is a different setting of the tune posted on the site here: https://thesession.org/tunes/4970

X: 2 Is how I know it as the Hopeful Lover. Nice on the fiddle.

This may be Scottish in origin, but it would have been written far before Bobby MacLeod’s birth… Tom Billy Murphy of Ballydesmond, Co. Cork gave this to Jack O’Connell of the Lighthouse, north of Ballydesmond. Jack can be heard playing it on the RTE Radio Documentary into the life of Tom Billy. Though many of Blind Tom’s tunes did seem to have roots in Scottish tunes, I would a present a two fold argument: Many Scottish tunes originally came over from Ireland, particularly marches, and many Sliabh Luachra tunes came from returned Yanks that played with Scots-Irish in America, such as one Cal O’Callaghan of Doonasleen, Kishkeam.

"Many Scottish tunes originally came over from Ireland, particularly marches…"

That’s interesting. Which ones?