Annotation:Wild Irishman (3) (The)

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X:1 T:Wild Irishman [3], The M:C| L:1/8 R:Single Reel S:Brian Conway - Lesson tape Z:Transcribed by Andrew Kuntz K:D DE | F2 AF DEFD | E~A,3 E~A,3 | FGAF DEFA | (3Bcd ec dBAG | FGAF DEFD | E~A,3 E~A,3 | FGAF DEFA | (3Bcd ec d2 || de | fd{e}dc dfaf | edcd efge | fd{e}dc dfag | (3fga eg fdde | fd{e}dc dfaf | edcd efge | dfaf g2 ag | (3fgf ec dBAG || P:"Variation" DE | F2 AF DEFD | E~A,3 EA,CE | ~F3E DEFA |

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WILD IRISHMAN [3]. AKA and see "Daisy Field (The)," "Danny O'Donnell's Reel," "Field of Daisies," “Irish Girl (5) (The).” Irish, Reel (cut time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Cranitch, Flaherty, Miller & Perron): AABB (Huntington): AABB' (Sullivan). The title "Wild Irishman (3)" is a misnomer, the result of a mistake on Michael Coleman's 1936 record label (Decca 12080) where it the second tune in a pairing of reels (O'Rourke's/The Wild Irishman). Coleman did play "The Wild Irishman," but that reel (first tune in the set) is really "Wild Irishman (7)." The record company had switched the titles on the label. However, so influential were Coleman's recordings that myriads of fiddlers for generations have followed the titles on the label; thus there are several "Wild Irishman" tunes attributed to Coleman. Francis O'Neill called the reel "Daisy Field (The)," while Coleman's contemporary County Sligo expatriates in New York, Packie Dolan and James Morrison each separately recorded the reel, but under the title “Irish Girl (5) (The).”

A version of the tune is a popular reel in County Donegal. An Uilleann piper by the name of Turlogh McSweeney, known as ‘The Donegal Piper’, made a reputation for himself as one of the best pipers of the latter 19th century. Though known as a taciturn and reserved individual, he relaxed enough on a visit to Chicago (to perform at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893) to tell two musician friends of Francis O’Neill the story of how he came by his talent. McSweeney put forth that he was not much of a player in his younger days, but that he was anxious to improve. Despairing of other means of attaining his goal, he thought to appeal to the fairies who lived at a hill-top rath nearby. On a moonlight night, he summoned his courage, buckled on his pipes and made his way to the fort. O’Neill (1913) quotes him:

Well, as I was saying, when I got to the center of the Plasog, as near as I could tell, you may be sure I wasn’t any too comfortable. Anyhow, I addressed myself to the king of the fairies saying: ‘I’m Turlogh McSweeney, the piper of Gwedore, and I hope you will pardon my boldness for coming to ask your majesty to play a ‘chune’ on the pipes for me, and I’ll return the compliment and play for you.’ Yerra man, like a shot out of a gun, the words were hardly out of my mouth when the grandest music of many pipers, let alone one, playing all together, filled my ears; and that wasn’t all for lo and behold you, what should I see but scores of little fairies or luricauns, wearing red caps, neatly footing it, as if for a wager. Believe me, I was so overcome with fright at such a strange and unexpected sight that I ran for the bare life, my pipes hanging to me and dropping off piece and joint along the way; and by the time I reached home, the dickens a bit of my whole set of pipes was left to me but the bellows and bag, and they couldn’t let go, as they were strapped round my waist. Picture to yourselves the kind of a night I spent after what happened. Anyway, by sun-up in the morning I ventured out and started to try and pick up the disjointed sections of my pipes, as I knew well enough the route I ran. My luck relieved my misgivings when I found the last missing part, which had dropped off at the very entrance to the rath or fort when I ran away. I lost no time in putting the now complete instrument in order, and to keep my word and fulfil my promise made to the king of the fairies the night before, I struck up “The Wild Irishman,” my favorite reel. Words can’t express my astonishment and delight when I found I could play as well as the best of them. And that, gentlemen, is how I came to be the best Union piper of my day in that part of the country.

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