Annotation:Dublin Porter
Tune properties and standard notation
DUBLIN PORTER, THE (Pórtar Dhúlainn). AKA and see "Dublin Porter House." Irish (originally), Canadian; Reel. Canada; Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Roche): AA'B (Breathnach): AABB (Cranitch): AABB' (Cranford): AA'BB' (Perlman). The tune was known, as are many Scots tunes, in County Donegal, Ireland, as evidenced by the diary entry of a fiddler named William Allingham, who was employed as a customs officer and whose vocation was traditional music. He visited a poor fiddler named Tom Read in the (probably Ballyshannon) poorhouse who played for him both "Ain Kind Dearie" and "Paudeen Ó Rafferty" in November of 1847, the time of the famine. Allingham gave George Petrie several tunes which appear in the latter's collection of Irish music. The tune was popularized by the teaching, recording and playing of Padraig Ó Caoimh whose version, suspects Caoimhin Mac Aoidh, was based on the printing in the Roche Collection. Ken Perlman (1996) states the tune was introduced to Prince Edward Island from the playing of Cape Breton fiddler Jerry Holland. The name Dublin is derived from the Gaelic dubh linne, or 'the black pool'. In County Kerry the tune is known as "Dublin Porter House," according to Breathnach (1985).
Source for notated version: Kenny Chaisson (b. 1947, Rollo Bay, North-East Kings County, Prince Edward Island) [Perlman]; fiddlers John and James Kelly (Ireland) [Breathnach].
Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ III), 1985; No. 155, p. 72. Cranford (Jerry Holland's), 1995; No. 178, p. 50. Cranitch (Irish Fiddle Book), 1996; p. 89. Perlman (The Fiddle Music of Prince Edward Island), 1996; p. 51. Roche (Collection of Traditional Irish Music), 1913; vol. 1, p. 72, No. 188.
Recorded sources: DARA CD 072, Any Old Time - "Crossing." Fiddlesticks cass., Jerry Holland - "A Session with Jerry Holland" (1990). Green Linnett, Jerry Holland - "The Fiddlesticks Collection" (1995). OSS CD 70, Brid Cranitch, Vince Milne, Pat Sullivan - "A Small Island." Outlet Records SOLP 1041, John & James Kelly - "Irish Traditional Music" (album notes for the tune state that this tune was a favorite of Sliabh Luachra, Kerry, fiddler Padraig O'Keeffe and that their father John Kelly Sr. suggested it could be also played at slower pace and in dotted rhythm as a hornpipe).
See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [2]