Annotation:Cornelius Curtin's Big Balloon

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CORNELIUS CURTIN'S BIG BALLOON (Balún Mór Chonchúir Mhic Cruitín). AKA and see "Captain Holmes," "Hide and Go Seek." Irish, Jig (6/8 time). E Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. Fiddler Con Curtain (d. 2009) ran a pub for many years in Fulham, south London called The Balloon, (or The Big Balloon), though most Irish music session pubs were north of the river. Of late, he and his wife Anne run a pub in Brosna, north Kerry. Con gives what he considers irrelevancies short shrift, guitarist Paul de Grae relates, as he did on one occasion when a visitor to Con's pub complained of the absence of a lock on the men's toilet door. Expletives deleted, Con's reply was that he had never heard of anyone in Kerry stealing shit. Sligo flute player Tommy Healy has been credited with coming up with the title in lieu of the original one which had been lost.

See also the Scottish cognate "Hills of Glenorchy (1)."

Source for notated version: flute player Paddy Carty (Ireland) [Breathnach].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ III), 1985; No. 22, p. 11.

Recorded sources: Shanachie 29001, Paddy Carty – "Traditional Irish Music" (1975).

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