Annotation:Young Francis Mooney

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YOUNG FRANCIS MOONEY (Pransias/Proinseas Óg Ua Maenaig). Irish, Jig. E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Bayard (1981) identifies this tune as a variant of "Lanigan's Ball." See also the related “Calendar (The),” “Finger the Shift.”

The title honors the first-born grandson of Chief Francis O'Neill (1848-1936). When he retired from office in 1905 at the age of fifty-seven, there remained only four surviving daughters of his large family of five boys and five girls (three children succumbed to contagious diseases, the two eldest dying on the same day). Julia and Caroline married, and the other two daughters became schoolteachers. Julia Ann O'Neill (1879-1971) married James Mooney in 1900. Like Francis O'Neill, Captain James L. Mooney, also rose through the ranks of the Chicago Police Force and became Chief of Detectives. O'Neill delighted in his grandchildren, however, his "stalwart grandsons," he wrote, "the Mooney brothers, Francis, James, William and Phillip, who have made their mark in the field of college althletics..." James Mooney starred at Loyola Academy and was an All-American at Georgetown and All Pro. He finished his football career with the Bears in the early '30s.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 35. O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 863, p. 160. O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 123, p. 35.

Recorded sources: Shanachie 78017, Jerry O'Suillivan - "The Gift" (1998).

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