Annotation:Moving Bogs (1) (The)

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MOVING BOG [1], THE (Na Portaigh Chreathaca). AKA - "The Moving Bogs of Powelsboro." "Flowers of Limerick (3)," "Miss Wallace (1)," "Wallace Twins (The)," "Upper Room (The)." Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Breathnach, Cranitch, Harker/Rafferty, Moylan): AAB (Mulvihill, O'Neill). The great Sligo fiddler James Morrison recorded the melody in the 1930's. Editor David Taylor (1992) believes "The Flowers of Limerick" (AKA "The Bunch of Keys") to be related to this tune. One wag renamed the tune "The PortaJohn" after the ubiquitous portable rest rooms at festivals. County Sligo fiddler James Morrison and accordion player Peter "P.J." Conlon recorded the reel in New York in 1924, and the pair, along with flute player Tom Morrison, recorded it again in 1929.

Moving bogs could be serious business, however. A notable tragedy occurred in the Sliabh Luachra region of Ireland during Christmas, 1896, when eight members of the Donnelly family were swept away as they slept peacefully in their cottage near Gneeveguilla. A landslide cause a huge portion of bog to float down the valley of the Owenacree river, with some material found to have come to rest fourteen miles away. A 13-year-old female child of the family, Katie, survived because she was staying with relatives several miles away. Later, after marrying, she returned to the site of the family homestead, moved in and raised her family there. She died in 1964 and was buried in Gneeveguilla (Hickey, Stone Mad for Music, 1999).

Source for notated version: flute player Seamus Tansey (Ireland) [Breathnach]; accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan]; Tony Smith (County Cavan & Dublin) [Mulvihill]; set dance music recorded at Na Píobairí Uilleann in the 1980's [Taylor]; New Jersey flute player Mike Rafferty, born in Ballinakill, Co. Galway, in 1926 [Harker].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ III), 1985; No. 120, p. 58. Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; p. 91. Harker (300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty), 2005; No. 16, p. 5. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 217, p. 125. Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 41, p. 11. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 141. Taylor (The Crossroads Dance), 1992; No. 28, p. 21. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Yellow Book), 1995; p. 7.

Recorded sources: Coleman Center CD CC004, Phillip Duffy & Kevin Brehony - "The Mountain Road" (1999. Various artists. "A Compilation of tunes popular in South Sligo." Appears as "The Moving Bogs of Powelsboro"). Outlet Records OLP 1007, "The Best of Seamus Tansey" (1971). Yazoo 7008, James Morrison & Peter Conlon - "The Wheels of the World, vol. 1: Early Irish-American Music Classic Recordings from the 1920s & 30s" (2000). Shaskeen - "My Love is in America."

See also listings at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [2]
Hear James Morrison, Tom Morrison & Conlon's 1929 recording on youtube.com [3] and at Comhaltas Archive [4] (2nd tune in medley, preceded by "Tap Room (The)").

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