Annotation:Drunken Parson (The)

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DRUNKEN PARSON, THE. AKA and see "Repley's Delight," "Sheela O'Gara," "Shilanagary." Scottish, Irish, English, American; Country Dance Tune (6/8 time). England, Shropshire. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Kerr): AABB (Ashman). "The Drunken Parson" melody has a long history in Ireland as "Sheela O'Gara" (Síle ní Ghadra), an air and jig tune that was first published in the middle of the 18th century in Burke Thumoth's 12 Scottish and 12 Irish Airs. However the earliest printing of the tune is as "Repley's Delight or The Drunken Parson" printed in David Runterford's Compleat Collection of Favorite Country Dances, vol. 1 (1756). The melody was found by the author of English Folk-Song and Dance (p. 144) in the repertoire of fiddler William Tilbury (who lived at Pitch Place, midway between Churt and Thursley in Surrey), who, in his younger days, used to play at village dances. Tilbury learned his repertoire from an uncle, Fiddler Hammond, who died around 1870 and who was the village fiddler before him. The conclusion was that "The Drunken Parson" and tunes of similar type survived in the tradition (at least in southwest Surrey) well into the second half of the 19th century. In America the tune was printed in Riley's Flute Melodies of 1814 and in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883).

Source for notated version: a c. 1837-1840 MS by Shropshire musician John Moore [Ashman].

Printed sources: Ashman (The Ironbridge Hornpipe), 1991; No. 83b, p. 34. Kerr (Merry Melodies vol. 1), c. 1880; No. 15, p. 29.

Recorded sources: McNamara Family - "Leitrim's Hidden Treasures."

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