O’Sullivan’s polka

I got this tune from the album ‘Sliabh Notes’ by Sliabh Notes. They play it in Bb but I assumed it may normally have been played in A

Bogman,
It’s not very clear in your transcription what are the parts (two or three) and waht is repeated. As I have no acess to the oroginal track, would you please inform us?

I guessed that the first line of music should be repeated and the 2nd and 3rd lines form the B section

???
It seems quite clear to me, especially if you check the ABC’s. The first two lines are the first part and the third line is the second part and is repeated.

For some reason the double bar lines at the end of the first part do look like one thick one. I have noticed though that I have made a small mistake, the F in the 13th bar of the first part should actually be an E. Yikes, very sorry about that!

|:
shows the beginning of the part which has to be repeated. Some abc converter programs wouls start at the beginning of the tune for the repetition and that’s wrong for sure

X: 2
T: O’Sullivan’s
M: 4/4
L: 1/4
R: polka
K: Gmaj
D |\
G>A GD | G2 Ge | dB AG | E2 ED |
G>A GD | G2 Ge | dB AB | d2 d2 |
de/f/ ge | dB A/B/A/G | AA/B/ AG | E2 ED/E/ |
G>A GD | G2 Ge | dB AB/A/ | G2 d>c ||
|: Bd G2 | B/c/d Gd | Bd ed | BA AG/A/ |
Bd Gd | Bd Gd | B/c/d ef |[1 ag g>d :|[2 ag- g |]

The version I’ve put down looks a lot different to the other 2, but is the version that is played on Padraig O’Keefe’s “The Sliabh Luachra Fiddle Master” album of recordings from the 1940’s, and on Julia & Billy Clifford’s “Ceol as Sliabh Luachra” from 1982. So I’m safe to assume it’s as close to the original as we’re going to get.

The name of the polka itself comes from a devastating event to hit the village of Gneeveguilla in the heart of Sliabh Luachra, on the Kerry side of the Cork-Kerry Border. On the night of Sunday 28 December 1896, after prolonged bad weather, sleeping families were awakened by a strange earthquake-like sound. When daylight broke, they realised that over 200 acres (0.81 km2) of bogland (peat) was on the move in a southerly direction, taking everything before it. It followed the course of the Ownachree river into the river Flesk. The bog continued to move until New Year’s Day and covered hundreds of acres of pasture land. The Moving Bog claimed all but one member of the entire Donnelly family of Knocknageeha, Gneeveguilla, and their livestock.

… and by the name, I meant “The Moving Bog”, as opposed to Sullivan’s!

Fluther - I think the setting you have posted is a different tune altogether.

So, does anyone know the tune that fluther posted? It is pretty close to what O‘Keefe plays on that recording, listed as O’Sullivan’s(The Moving Bog) but is clearly a different tune

Found it-https://thesession.org/tunes/2069

Sounds quite similar to Miss Admiral Gordon’s Strathspey. https://thesession.org/tunes/9092

This is the second polka/strathspey crossover I’ve noticed, the other being Cutting Bracken https://thesession.org/tunes/647 which I’ve heard both ways.

I wonder if these are just coincidental crossovers or if there’s some greater pattern of strathspeys turning into polkas.