Annotation:Jackson's Welcome Home

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JACKSON'S WELCOME HOME. AKA and see "Connachtman's Jig (The)," "Holly Tree (1) (The)," "Lilt (2)." Irish, Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The tune is credited to Walker ("Piper") Jackson, a noted 18th century Irish piper and a landed gentlemen with estates in the townland of Lisdaun, parish of Ballingarry, Aughrim, County Limerick. He was an accomplished and famous dance composer, mostly of jigs, many of which include his name in the titles (a number more have been credited to him, although it is doubtful or not possible for him to have composed them). The tune was first published in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, volume one, and it was entered into the 1841-42 music manuscript collection of Dublin dentist and music collector Henry Hudson (1798-1889). A Pennsylvania collected cotillion in Bayard (1981; No. 482, p. 450), is a version of the tune. Also, the first part of O'Carolan's "Planxty Irwin" strongly resembles "Jackson's Welcome Home." The second strains of O'Flannagan's and O'Neill's versions differ, although the general contour is similar, while the first strains are nearly identical.

Source for notated version: manuscripts in the possession of Chicago Police Sergeant James O'Neill, originally from County Down; many were from the playing of his father [O'Neill].

Printed sources: P.H. Hughes (Gems from the Emerald Isle), c. 1860's; No. 74, p. 17 (appears as untitled "Lilt"). Kennedy (Traditional Music of Britain and Ireland: Jigs & Quicksteps, Trips & Humours), 1997; No. 88, p. 22. O'Farrell (Pocket Companion, vol. 1), c. 1805; p. 65. O'Flannagan (Hibernia Collection), 1860; p. 19 (Boston, Elias Howe). O'Neill (Waifs and Strays of Gaelic Melody), 1922; No. 132. Riley's Flute Melodies, c. 1815, vol. 1; No. 310.

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