Eonach Mhic Coilín reel

It’s a great tune for rolls. The only place I don’t put them is on the high D’s in the B part. Pretty much everything else can be rolled if you try.

Jeremy, what’s your source for this tune? I’m curious, because if you reverse the parts, and drop it a tone, you are very nearly “Within A Mile Of Dublin” !

Don’t mean to intrude, but Ril Eanach Mhic Coilin is #194 in Vol 2 of Breathnach’s Ceol Rince na hEireann. He collected it off of Liam Higgins, a flute player from Co. Leitrim. If I remember right, the comments with the original posting here included a mention of Ceol Rince na hEireann.

I learned a very nice simple tune called “Kevin Henry’s” from Catherine and John McEvoy’s recent duet album and was about to post it just before now. I didn’t know it’s already on this site. McEvoy version is slightly different from Jeremy’s:

K: Edor
BEGE DEGA|BEGE d2BA|BEGE DEGA|BddB A2GA:|
Beed BAGA|(3Bcd ef gfed|Beed BAGA|(3BAG dB A2GA|
Beed BAGA|(3Bcd ef ~g3a|bgaf gfed|eBdB A2GA||

The sleeve notes say it’s an alternative setting of Drowsy Maggie, but I think it’s much more like “Sleepy Maggie.” Just compare: https://thesession.org/tunes/787

I’m not absolutely sure, but it seems this obscure tune is related to some of very standard tunes listed below:

Jenny’s Chicken: https://thesession.org/tunes/756
Within a Mile of Dublin: https://thesession.org/tunes/125
The Morning Dew: https://thesession.org/tunes/69
The Mountain Top: https://thesession.org/tunes/529
The Old Ruined Cottage: https://thesession.org/tunes/557

Isn’t funny that all of these common Irish tunes are more or less related to each other, and derive from one and the same Scottish reel “Sleepy Maggie”?

Anyway, you can listen to Kevin Burke playing this tune on a radio programme: http://www.rte.ie/radio1/story/1014033.html (Sunday, 8 Aug, 2004) The set starts around 35:00. Maybe the file wil be deleted quite soon.

Funny, this tune is also related to The Pigeon on the Gate: https://thesession.org/tunes/517

This is a setting you’re likely to come across in sessions these days, thanks to Danu:

X: 1
T: Donoghue’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
S: Danu: Think Before You Think
K: Edor
BE~E2 DEGA|BE~E2 D2GA|BE~E2 DEGA|1 BedB A2GA:|2 BedB ADFA||
Beed BAGA|(3Bcd ef gfed|Beed BAGA|BedB A2GA|
Beed BAGA|(3Bcd ef g2fg|e3f edBA|BedB ADFA||

BTW I find it most irritating that they don’t go up to the high d, and just keep on repeating BE~E2 D2GA|BE~E2 D2GA… add infinitum. Played that way, the tune is more memorable during the aftermath of a session (because that phrase has been rammed down your throat rather unsubtly) BUT the tune loses some of its melodic flow IMO.

I’ve just got Marcas O Murchu’s fantastic solo recording. This tune has an interesting title “Tyrone Ashplant” on it. His version is virtually identical to what I transcribed from Catherine and John McEvoy’s duet playing. Great flute tune!

I learned this off a friend’s recording of a Patrick Ourceau fiddle workshop. According to M. Ourceau it’s named after a small town outside of Tulla.

X:1
T: The Lecarrow
M:C
K:G
d2 c|:BE ~E2 DEGA|BE ~E2 d2 BA|BE ~E2 DEGA|BedB ABGA:|
|:~B2 ed c/2B/2A GA|~d2 ef g2 ag|eged c/2B/2A GA|BedB ABGA:|

I was recently taught this tune by Kevin Crawford at a workshop. It’s a really good tune if you get some swing into it!

Seems to be quite a widespread tune with lots of relations. I’m afraid, Kellie, that it’s been here for a long time:
https://thesession.org/tunes/78

Transcription based on the tune as played by Fergal Scahill, Sean McCarthy and David Howley on *Freewheel*.

I was looking into this after hearing Kevin Crawford play it as Eanach Mhic Coilín.

Annaghmacullen is a townland in the parish of Cloone, Co. Leitrim, next to Tooma (the Cloone reel is aka the Humours of Tooma). It’s very close to Mohill (where Carolan set up home).
https://www.townlands.ie/leitrim/mohill/cloone/cloone/annaghmacullen/

In Breathneach’s CRE v.2
“194. Ríl Eanach Mhic Coilín: The Annamaculeen Reel, from William Higgins [flute], Mohill, County Leitrim, IX, 1966.”

I guess Breatnach put the name back into Irish as he did with all the titles in the book.

It was one of the tunes in the early 20th century manuscript collection belonging to Longford fiddler Larry Smith, found in an attic. In there it’s called Gladstone’s Bill (which was the first Home Rule Bill in 1866). A lot of his tunes he took down from the 19th century Longford fiddler Thomas ‘Blind’ Kiernan.

It’s also under the same title in the Stephen Grier manuscript and the Sutherland manuscript collected from Leitrim, but versions in the key of A instead of E. That version is also known as the Grand Gates of Annesbrook and in CRE4 Breathneach notes…

“195. Geataí Móra Annesbrook: The Grand Gates of Annesbrook (Wade). With a note that says that Jack Wade got it from a ms. of Pat Ward (1847-1928) - a piper who was born near Drumconrath, County Meath, but spent his life in Drogheda, County Louth”

Bizarre coincidence, a family member lived at the back of Annesbrook House in Meath so I know the old gates to that driveway very well!

This reel seems to have derived from Ratha Fair: https://thesession.org/tunes/14376