Annotation:John MacDermot

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JOHN MACDERMOT. AKA - "John MacDermott," "Plangsty Dermot." Irish, Planxty or Air (4/4 time, "bold"). A Dorian or Minor ('A' part) & G Major/A Dorian ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Composed by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738). O'Sullivan (1958) believes the subject of the composition to be Counsellor John MacDermott, the second son of Henry and Mary MacDermott Roe. He would not have become known as 'MacDermott Roe', points out O'Sullivan, until he became the head of the family (should his elder brother have pre-deceased him, without issue). John lived at Annagh, near Ballyfarnon, on the banks of Lough Meelagh. He died in 1777.

O'Sullivan also notes that the opening bars of the air are similar to those of O'Carolan's "Susanna Kelly", and that "there is a curious resemblance , in both the first half and the second half, to Carolan's second air for 'John Drury (2)' (No. 43)" (p. 254).

Source for notated version: Miss Ellen Phelan, Cork, via the Pigot Collection [Joyce].

Printed sources: The Citizen, or, Dublin Monthly Magazine, 1841. Complete Collection of Carolan's Irish Tunes, 1984; No. 86, p. 69. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 817, p. 397. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; No. 86, p. 147.

Recorded sources:

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