Annotation:Kerry Cow (The)

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KERRY COW, THE (An Bhó Chiarraíoch). AKA and see "All the Way to Galway (3)," "I Wish I Had a Kerry Cow," "Slash Away the Pressing Gang," "Yankee Doodle." Irish, Polka. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The parts in Breathnach's and Moylan's volumes are reversed from each other. "All the Ways to Galway" is a single reel setting of the tune. The title is from the song "I wish I had a Kerry cow," but the tune Breathnach prints is meant to accompany the polka dance. See the related family of tunes including "All the Way to Galway" and both "Road to Lisdoonvarna (1)/Road to Lisdoonvarna (2)" tunes. In northern Ireland the tune is sometimes heard as a Highland (see the Northern Fiddler, 1979, 109, where it appears as an untitled Highland). Scots variants include "Big Kirsty" and "Miss Stewart Bun Rannoch."

Source for notated version: fiddler Laurence McDonagh, 1972 (Ballinafad, Co. Sligo, Ireland) [Breathnach]; accordion player Johnny O'Leary (Sliabh Luachra region of the Cork-Kerry border) [Moylan].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 116, p. 63. Moylan (Johnny O'Leary), 1994; No. 342, p. 193. Tubridy (Irish Traditional Music, Book Two), 1999; p. 7.

Recorded sources:

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