Annotation:McNamara's March

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McNAMARA'S MARCH (Hy Caisin). Irish, March (6/8 time). Ireland, East Clare. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. It would seem this is a clan march. According to Richard Francis Cronnelly's Irish Family History; being an Historical and Genealogical Account of the Gaedhals (1865, pp. 319-320), the name McNamara derives from:

The Mac Conmaras, or Mac Namaras derive their descent and surname from Conmara, of the line of Cais...This sept, before the establishment of surnames, was known by the tribe name of Hy-Caisin, i.e. the descendents of Caisin, son of Cais; also, by that of Hy-Colean or Clan-Coileann, i.e. the children of Coilean, son of Urthioile, son of Donghaile, who was a powerful warrior, and a distinguished commander of a battalion of the Dalcassians of Thomond. The tribe name of Hy-Caisin was afterwards given to the territory possessed by the sept, who adopted the permanent surname of Mac Namara, in the 11th century, in obedience to the laws of the kingdom...

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music, vol. 2), 1912; No. 323, p. 54.

Recorded sources:

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