James McMahon’s jig

A composition of Fermanagh flute player James McMahon, who wrote the Banshee. I first learned the A major version from Charlie Piggott and Gerry Harrington’s duet playing, but transposed it back to the original key. A different version of the tune can be found on page 82 of Hidden Fermanagh Book. It seems to be included in Ceol Rince Vol 4, too.

There are a couple of jigs with similar pentatonic feel:

The Luathradán: https://thesession.org/tunes/1880
The Shaskeen: https://thesession.org/tunes/5197

I thought for a minute the title was “James Mahon’s”. James Mahon is a local piper and flute player I know.

Is that the man who won this year’s All-Ireland flute competition?

You got it in one Sláinte! He’s also a great uilleann piper and a gentleman too, and was the 2005 champion on this instrument.

Below seems like another variation of James McMahon’s jig.

X: 1
T: Bill McCormick’s
M: 6/8
L: 1/8
R: jig
K: Dmaj
|: f2d edB | AdB AFA | BAF DFA |1 Bcd ede :|2 Bdc dze ||
|: f2f afa | baf fed | eff edB | ABd ede |
eff afa | baf fed | efd edB | Adc d2e :|

Here’s the composer of the tune playing it on the whistle: https://soundcloud.com/rose-mcmahon/mcmahons-fav-jig-james-mcmahon-whistle-solo

Here it is in G. At our local session, we play it in this key after MacCallum’s (The Chapel Bell) in D.

James McMahon’s jig is more or less a D version of the Caherlistrane in A, which I encountered first on Patrick Street #2. Caherlistrane is a place in north Galway; I don’t know if it is associated with McMahon.
https://thesession.org/tunes/3006

Or alternatively, “The Caherlistrane” is a version of “James McMahon’s” [ in “D”], transposed to “A”. How do you know which came first ?

Good question. “Versions” are commutative, and don’t include chronological metadata. The solution hinges on whether J. M. is truly the composer.