Annotation:MacAlisdrum's March

Back to MacAlisdrum's March

---

MACALISDRUM'S MARCH ("Máirseáil Alasdroin" or "Máirseáil Alasdruim"). AKA and see "Allistrum's March (1)," "Alasdruim's March," "Church Hill (2) (The)," "Kitty the Rag I'm in Love with You," "MacDonnell's March," "Máirseáil Alasdruim (2), Máirseáil Alasdruim (2), Máirseáil Alasdruim (3)," "Ollistrum Jig" (O'Neill). Irish, Scottish; March (6/8 time). Ireland, Munster. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABBCC (Bunting): ABCD (O'Neill): AABBCCDD (Johnson).

Alaster or Alexander MacDonnell, also known as Alasdair Mac Allisdrum/MacAllistrum or Colkittu (Colkitto), was a commander who was killed at the battle of Knockinoss (Cnoc na nDos, or Shrub Hill), near Mallow, County Cork, in the south of Ireland, in September, 1647. The famous martial hero was a Scotsman, a brave and skilful warrior who commanded Lord Antrim's Irish in Scotland under Montrose, and when Montrose's army was broken up he and his Irish returned to Ireland, joining the confederation of Catholics under Lord Taaffe in Munster. At the battle of Cnoc na nDos (Knockinoss) one account (quoted by Grattan Flood, 1906) gives that he was assassinated while parlaying with the English Parliamentary forces under Lord Inchiquinn, while Bunting (1840) states that "after the rout of the main body of the Irish, Macdonnell and his people held their ground till they were cut to pieces by the English. It is said that none escaped." MacDonnell's sword, which had a steel apple running in a groove on the back supposedly to increase the striking force, was in Bunting's time said to still have been preserved in Loghan Castle, County Tipperary. Bunting (1840) states Allisdrum was the son of Coll Kittogh (Ciotach) or Left-handed Coll, also a famous warrior whose name has been preserved by Milton in the lines:

Why, it is harder, Sirs, than Gordon,
Colkittor, or MacDonnall, or Galasp.

Flood (1906) states: "We may form some idea of the desperate courage which inspired these men from the impetuous energy and wild shrilly fervour of this strain, which is undoubtedly the same pibroach (pipe tune) that they marched to on the morning of their last battle...This march was played at his funeral by war-pipers when his remains were interred in the ancestral tomb of the O'Callaghans at Clonmeen (near Kanturk), County Cork, and ever since has been called "Máirseáil Alasdroim." Breathnach (1966) believes that Flood's statement that the piece was a death-march especially composed by the Irish warpipers at the time is almost certainly untrue, and notes Flood now has a reputation for repeating some extremely questionable assertions.

In 1750 Dr. Charles Smith (in his History of Cork, volume II, p. 159) noted the tune was "well-known in Munster...a wild rhapsody...much esteemed by the Irish and played at all their feasts" (Flood, 1906; Bunting, 1840). Despite its supposed age, however, the oldest appearance of the noted music is to be found in a MS collection from Lisronagh (near Clonmel), County Tipperary, dating from 1784. Terry Moylan believes this to be manuscript collection of Kilkenny musician Patrick O'Neill (1765-1832), now in the hands of the National Library of Ireland (NLI). According to researcher Nicholas Carolan [An Píobaire, vol. 5, No. 5, 2009, pp. 18-19], "Patrick O'Neill or Pádraig Ó Niall (1765-1832) was a prosperous miller and farmer of some 80 acres at Owning, Piltown, Co. Kilkenny (in the south-east of the county, near Carrick-on-Suir).[7] His son Cornelius (1830-97), also of Owning, seems to have written one of the NLI music manuscripts. By avocation Patrick O'Neill was, as well as being an uilleann piper, a fiddle player[8] and seemingly a singer, and an Irish-language poet,[9] known locally as 'An Muilleoir Meidhreach' (the merry miller). The manuscripts contain tunes from a variety of sources, including Scottish, English and Continental tunes as well as Irish, not uncommon in period manuscripts, which seems to assert that musicians of the era were interested in good tunes, no matter what the source. Crofton Croker's 1824 Researches in the South of Ireland also contains a printing of the piece. According to O'Neill (1913), Croker acknowledged its popularity in the south of Ireland but thought that "Ollistrum's March" (as he called it) should not be considered an Irish air, but rather Scottish due to its stylistic similarity to the pibroch of that country. Again, Breathnach (1966) demurs, saying that there is no good grounds for Croker's assertion that "Allasdrum's March" is not Irish. Paddy Moloney of the Chieftains seems to split the difference when he states the tune reflects the "rich fertilisation between Irish and Scottish harpers and pipers."

Croker goes on to say: "The estimation in which it is held in Ireland is wonderful. I have heard this march, as it is called, sung by hundreds of the Irish peasantry who imitate the drone of the bagpipe in their manner of singing it. On that instrument I have also heard it played and occasionally with much pleasure from the peculiar and powerful expression given by the performer." O'Sullivan (1983) notes the piece is printed by Bunting (1840) but that his version is only a section of a longer descriptive piece for pipers called "Máriseáil Alasdruim." It is a relatively complicated programmatic tune, in its entirety. County Cork piper and Anglican cleric James Goodman, writing in 1861, described the piece as he heard it from Kerry pipers:

...(It) contains in addition to the March, the Gathering, the Battle, the shouts on the fall of Allisdrum, and the cries, first of the mother, the Munsterwoman, then that of his nurse, a Leinsterwoman, with the lament of his wife, the Ulsterwoman, and the piece concludes with the old jig 'Cnocán an Teampuill' which she is said to have struck up so soon as she ascertained that her husband was really dead.

A variant of the piece is called "Sarsfield's Quickstep" and appears in Haverty's Three Hundred Irish Airs (1858-1859). See also the Kerry variant "Micky "Cumbaw" O'Sullivan's."

Sources for notated versions: Bunting noted the piece from "a piper at Westport (Co. Mayo), 1802"; Willie Clancy (Miltown Malbay, County Clare), who had his version from an old piper, Mickey McMahon, who lived at Kilcororan (County Clare) and called it "Alexander's March" [Breathnach].

Printed sources: Breathnach (Ceol II, 3), 1966. Breathnach (The Man and His Music), 1997; pp. 18. Bunting (Ancient Music of Ireland), 1840 (appears as "Allistrum's March"). Heymann (Off the Record), 1990; pp. 10-11. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician No. 5: Mostly Irish Airs), 1985 (revised 2000); p. 17. O'Neill (Music of Ireland), 1903; No. 1802. O'Neill (1913), p. 124 (appears as "Allistrum's March"). O'Sullivan/Bunting, 1983; No. 112, pp. 161-162.

Recorded sources: Claddagh CC17, Sean Keane - "Gusty's Frolics" (1975. Appears as "Micky 'Cumbaw' O'Sullivan's"). Island ILPS9432, The Chieftains - "Bonaparte's Retreat" (1976). RCA 09026-61490-2, The Chieftains - "The Celtic Harp" (1993). Temple Records 013, Ann Heymann & Alison Kinnaird - "Harper's Land" (1983).

See also listings at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [2]

---

Back to MacAlisdrum's March