John L. Sullivan reel

I picked this up from the album ‘Dual’ by Eamon Doorley, Julie Fowlis, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh and Ross Martin. I’ve no idea of to origin as it’s not mentioned in the sleeve notes, so I preume it to be traditional. The name sounds Scottish but the tune sounds Irish to me.

a version of "Farewell to Ireland" that I play. I’m not sure where I picked it up, it’s a bit different from the version on the Session; though there are still things in common.

Farewell to Erin: https://thesession.org/tunes/846

I have two tunes called "Mrs Ramsay Of Barnton" (note spelling), neither of them this tune. Both strathspeys, the earlier one is from the Gows in B flat, and a later one in Kerr’s (and the Atholl Collection) in E minor.

Mmm, it’s definitely listed on the Dual and the Blazzin Fiddles albums as Barton, though that could be a mistake in both cases.

It’s most likely that Allan Henderson was the source of the "Mrs Ramsay of Barton[sic]" title. The Blazers would get it from Allan, and Julie Fowlis et al would get it from Ross Martin who played on Allan’s "Estd~1976" recording which included the tune. Allan says in the liner notes that he has been playing it since he was a child and learned it from a recording of Winnie Chafe.

As pointed out by Nigel above, in this case "Mrs Ramsay of Barnton" is indeed an Em strathspey, and was played by Winnie Chafe as the first tune of track 6 on her LP "The Bonnie Lass of Headlake" with the "Barton" misspelling. But she also played the tune here as the second strathspey on track 12 with the title "John L. Sullivan’s". It’s likely that Allan Henderson got the titles of the two tunes muddled up.

As played by Allan Henderson, as a strathspey, on "Estd~1976" under the title "Mrs Ramsay of Barton".

See here for correct title: https://www.cbfiddle.com/rx/tune/t3001.html

My take