Annotation:Greencastle Hornpipe (The)

Back to Greencastle Hornpipe (The)

---

GREENCASTLE (HORNPIPE), THE (Crannciuil Caislean-Glais/Glas). AKA and see "Limerick Hornpipe," "McPartland's Style." Irish, Hornpipe. G Major (Allan, O'Neill): D Major (Roche). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Moylan): AA'B (Moylan): AABB (Allan, O'Neill, Roche). The hornpipe is contained in the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uileann piper Canon biography:James Goodman (vol. iii, p. 98) as an untitled tune [1]. Reg Hall (1998) says the tune has had enough currency in Northumberland to be considered local. County Leitrim flute player John McKenna recorded the tune in New York in 1925 under the title "McPartland's Style" (honoring a renowned step-dancer). The first strain of "Greencastle" is somewhat of a 'floater' and versions can also be found in "Hanley's Hornpipe" and "Mountain Hornpipe (3) (The)."

Source for notated version: accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan]; Francis O'Neill learned the tune from a young Limerick man named James Moore in Chicago during the winter of 1875. Moore, a flute player without an instrument, lived in a cold boarding-house across the street from O'Neill and often availed himself of O'Neill's hospitality, ensconcing himself on a "cozy seat on the woodbox back of our kitchen stove" while borrowing O'Neill's flute to play on. Moore, complained a frustrated O'Neill, often did not remember the names of the tunes he played ("a very common failing") and was lost track of when he moved to New York in the spring [O'Neill, Irish Folk Music].

Printed sources: McDermott (Allan's Irish Fiddler), c. 1920's; No. 75, p. 19. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 288, pp. 166-167 & No. 305, pp. 175-176. O'Neill (O'Neill's Irish Music), 1915; No. 338, p. 166. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 807, p. 140. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies) 1903; No. 1557, p. 288. O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 164 (appears in all editions as "The Greencastle Hornpipe"). Roche (Collection of Irish Traditional Music, vol. 2), 1912; No. 235, p. 18.

Recorded sources: Topic TSCD 669, Will Atkinson (et al) - "Ranting and Reeling: Dance Music of the north of England" (1998. Atkinson {b. 1908} of Crookham, Northumberland, was a harmonica and accordion player).

See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]

---