Annotation:Banshee's Wail Over the Mangle Pit (The)

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BANSHEE'S WAIL OVER THE MANGLE PIT, THE. AKA and see "Young Tom Ennis." Irish, Jig. D Major. Standard tuning. AA'BB'. The story goes that Martin Hayes searched for a while for a name for this tune, and finally asked Paddy O'Brien (Tipperary), a storehouse of such information, if he knew a title for it. Paddy did not, and when Hayes then asked if he would make one up, O'Brien responed with the delightfully odd "Banshee's Wail over the Mangle Pit." Henrick Norbeck points out, however, that the melody is "Young Tom Ennis" from O'Neill transposed from A Dorian to E Dorian. The 'mangle pit' part of O'Brien's title probably refers to bitter brassicas-rutabagas or vegatables akin to a turnip-that are used to feed cattle as winter fodder; thus a 'mangle pit' is a vegetable dump in the ground. Compare the first strain also with the first strain of "Doorus Mill."

Recorded source: Green Linnett GLCD 1155, Martin Hayes - "Under the Moon" (1995).

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