Annotation:Mary from Blackwater Side

Back to Mary from Blackwater Side

---

MARY FROM BLACKWATER SIDE. Irish, Air (4/4 time). A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. O'Neill (1922) says his melody "Connacht Mother's Slumber Song" "betrays a similar origin" with this tune. However that may be, "Mary from Blackwater Side" is a variant of the well-known air "Star of the County Down."

Source for notated version: "...from the whistling of Joe Martin of Kilfinane Co. Limerick, a rambling working man with a great knowledge of Irish airs and songs, and much natural musical taste" (Joyce).

Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 187, p. 93.

Recorded sources:

---