Dash To Portobello reel

This reel was written by Co. Tipperary fiddler Sean Ryan, a prolific composer of more than 250 tunes. I learned it from the playing of Kevin Burke, but can’t remember which recording. The liner notes spelled it Glens, though some printed sources keep it singular. Not having personally been to Aherlow, I don’t know whether they’re blessed with an abundance of glens, or just one singluar glen.

I posted the tune now because there’s some confusion over Lafferty’s Reel also being known as the Glen(s) of Aherlow. To my ear, they are similar but different tunes. For one thing, Lafferty’s is in E dorian, and Aherlow is in E minor. The chord structure also doesn’t match, at least not between the tunes as I know them.

Which all adds up to two great reels to play rather than just one with many names….

There is one single glen called the Glen of Aherlow, in the shadow of the Galty Mountains,
Co. Tipperary. I would have spent a night in a youth hostel there, but I got lost cycling in the dark and ended up camping in a rubbly field behind a petrol station.

The tune posted here is actually called “The Dash to Portobello.” It can been found in Sean Ryan’s collection of compositions titled “The Hidden Ireland.”

Now I’m thoroughly confused and can only claim stateside (and boondocks besides) ignorance on all this. Lafferty’s, the Woman I Never Forgot, Glen of Aherlow, and the Dash to Portobello. I have no idea what name “officially” goes with which tune. My info on these tunes is based almost entirely on the recordings of Kevin Burke, usually a credible source of knowledge on such things. But radriano’s cite seems beyond question, so I’ll beg off and go with whatever sounds reasonable.

Sean Ryan wrote this in honor of Geal-linn (ITM record co), so it picked up the name “Geal-Linn” as well.

This isn’t the “Glens of Aherlow” after all - The tune “Glens of Aherlow” was posted by Josh Kane as “Lafferty’s” another name the tune goes by - this one is the “Dash to Portobello” or “Gael-Linn”. They’re both compositions of Sean Ryan’s

For an explanation of the different names, a transcription from the playing of Sean Ryan himself, plus an accompanying mp3, go here: http://www.cranfordpub.com/tunes/Irish/DashPortobello.htm. Be aware, though, that the fiddle is tuned down a tone.

This is the tune that is played first on Track 13 of The Fire Aflame, not Sean Ryan’s Jig as listed in the database here…

is this the same tune?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kpQ5ke16vM

play video

Robert, your youtube tune bears the same name, ie: The Glen of Aherlow, but it’s a different reel: you’ll find the score for it at:
https://thesession.org/tunes/496
Note that your guy on the piano accordion there plays it in Dm.

I’ve always known this tune as Sean Ryan’s. I love the pulse of this tune, one of the best.

how do you play this tune with the flute oder pipes ? do you transpose the notes deeper than d or do you transpose the whole bar ?

Version from L.E. McCullough’s Tinwhistle Tutor.

(And also my favorite)

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know which Portobello they are dashing to? There are 6 in the world, according to Google, from S Africa, to New Zealand, USA, but I’d love to think it was that place just East of Edinburgh, with its long promenade and sandy beach,“Edinburgh’s Riviera”.

I think Sean Ryan lived his whole life in Tipperary and Offaly, so he probably commemorated a dash to Portobello in Dublin.

“ be aware that the fiddle is tuned down a tone“ - just read this comment after learning it in Dminor from Sean Ryan’s recording on ‘Milestone at the Garden’! Oh well, all good practice.

The story goes that “Dash to Portobello” refers to a last-minute trip of the Nenagh, Tipperary fiddle player Seán Ryan – the tune’s author – to a Radio Éireann studio located in the Portobello area of Dublin.

This fine tune has also been duplicated here as “The Ebb Tide Reel”, a title apparently popular in Sligo. https://thesession.org/tunes/1821