Annotation:O'Sullivan More's March (1)

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O'SULLIVAN MOR(E'S MARCH) [1]. AKA and see "The Highlander's March," "The Rebel's March," "Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow," "Captain Collins" (Pa.), "Onehorned Cow (2) (The)," "The Retreat," "Pretender's March (The)," "Green Goose Fair (1)," "Glengariff," "Gogaí ó gog," "Painseach/Pairneach/Páinneach na nUbh [1]" (Basket of Eggs (The)), "Montrose's March," "Scottish March," "Bob Ridley" (Pa.), "The Bell Cow [1]" (Pa.), "The Belling Tune" (Pa.), "Fifer's March" (Pa.). Irish, March (3/4 and 6/8 time). A Major (Roche): G Major (Tubridy). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Tubridy): AABBCCDDEEFF'GG' (Roche). The tune, note the Chieftains, is nowadays played more often as a jig, but is said to have been the march of the Kerry-based O'Sullivan Clan. Tubridy's 6/8 version corresponds to the last parts of the Roche printing. A recording of "O'Sullivan's March" by Matt Molloy was used as theme for the 1995 film Rob Roy, starring Liam Neeson. O'Neill (1922) notes: "The above is an involved variant of a much simpler jig tune of identical name printed in Lynch's Melodies of Ireland (1845); and in O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (1907) (for which see "O'Sullivan's March (2)"). The strain is ancient. Following is a quatrain of a folk song sung to it in the editor's boyhood days:

There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket
Seventeen times as high as the moon;
What she was doing there I cannot imagine
But in her hand she carried a broom.

All of which is reminiscent of the days of witchcraft."

See note for "Páinneach na nUbh (1)" for notes on the tune-family.

Source for notated version: the Rice-Walsh manuscript, a collection of music from the repertoire of Jeremiah Breen, a blind fiddler from North Kerry [O'Neill].

Printed sources: Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2), 1912; No. 315, p. 51. O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 78. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, vol. 1), 1999; p. 6. Walsh (Session Tunes, vol. 2).

Recorded sources: Claddagh CC24, "The Chieftains 7" (1977). Columbia 35612, "The Chieftains" (1977). Columbia Legacy CK 48693, "The Best of the Chieftains" (1986).

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