The Kilfenora jig

I am not sure but I think this is another great one for beginners. I don’t see too many of them having problems with this one. I think everyone will find a good driving feel to the A part. That’s what attracted me to it.

I have no idea where this tune can be heard. I learned it off a commedian friend of mine.

This is the last jig in a series of 3 played by the great Kilfenora Ceili Band from Clare. It was made famous originally by the Band back in the fifties but is also played today by the new Kilfenora (All-Ireland champion Ceili Band in 1993, 1994 and 1995 - one of the few bands ever to make it “three in a row”).
I’ll try and post the other 2 jigs in the series now for any of you musicians heading down for a session in Clare!

By request and because that’s how it is. Thanks for the information Bannerman

Because the this tune is called “The Kilfenora”, not “The Kilfenora 3” or “The Kilfenora C” or “The Kilfenora Mark III”, just “The Kilfenora”.

Clicking on Thomond Brodge in the listing for Eamonn Cotter’s CD brings up the music for Kilfenora jig, which is, of course, entirely unrelated to the hornpipe Cotter recorded.

The Johnstons {Paul Brady, Mick Moloney as youngsters} do a cool version of it for those pickers out there.

Key signature: A Major
Submitted on August 9th 2006 by McMandolin.
https://thesession.org/tunes/6083/

& ABC’s in the comments as I’ve known this tune:
M: 12/8 & K: D Major

Note: The above link is to a version where the parts are reversed of how they are presented here, and that is the first way I’d learned it, but I’ve known it both ways as well…

Never heard the Uncle Jim version in A in sessions, but the one posted here gets played almost every week in my session. It always gets played after the other Kilfenora jigs (boring - we must stop doing that), and never as a slide, but as a nice rolling jig, with the part that starts |F2A ABA| as the A-part. I play bars 3 & 4 as |G2B ~B2A|~B2A Bcd| and bar 2 of the B-part I sometimes play as |dfe ~d3| and sometimes as |DFA ~d3|.

I wonder how if it is just the old Kilfenora Ceili Band recording that reversed the order of the parts. In it’s various guises and keys I have mostly seen it transcribed, except for those things based on the Kilfenora set, with it starting high, in this case:

A-part:
|: d2 A F2 A | ~ but as time shows, it works both ways…

#1-of-3 in The Kilfenora Ceili Band Set, 50’s
~ also known as “Kitty Lie Over”, “Paddy’s Return”, “Patsy McCann’s”.
Key signature: D Major
Submitted on September 3rd 2002 by Bannerman.
https://thesession.org/tunes/948

#2-of-3 in Kilfenora Ceili Band Set, 50’s
Key signature: D Major
Submitted on September 4th 2002 by Bannerman.
https://thesession.org/tunes/949

A beginners tune is an apt description.

For real beginners on the tin whistle, the challenge is in the first part: cutting a’s and b’s and the forking b/c fingering.

I heard it on an Arkady CD - Many happy Returns

This is how I got the tune from Michael Tubridy a few months back. Though I see that this is more or less what Dr. Dow described above, it just didn’t get made into a proper setting.

It’s listed in Ceoltóirí an Doirín’s first tune book as The Steamboat and is played in the locality (and Kinvara) always followed by Siney Crotty’s.

This tune is well-known in GHB circles as the Steamboat, but it was first published in Henderson’s tutor of 1900 under the title of The Hills of Caithness. It was then published in 1949 in a book for Irish players of GHB, or warpipes, or whatever you want to call them, for “the use of Irish regiments in the British Army”. The title there is given as the Steamboat and it has been known as such pretty much ever since. Although it’s quite different from the Kilfenora I wonder if this was the source.

These versions can be found here:
https://ceolsean.net/content/Hendo/Hendo_TOC.html
https://ceolsean.net/content/Brigade/Brigade_TOC.html