Annotation:Old Maids of Galway (1) (The)
X:1 T:Old Maids of Galway [1], The M:C| L:1/8 R:Reel S:O'Neill - Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1903), No. 654 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G e>B {B}(3BAB e2 dB|A2 GA dBgf|(3efg df e2 dB|A2 GA BG G2:| ||g2 fg efde|g2 bg eaaf|g2 fg efdB|A2 GA BG G2| g2 fg efde|g2 bg eaag|bgaf gedB|A2 GA BG G2||
OLD MAID(S) OF GALWAY [1], THE ("Na Banabraside Ua Gaillib" or "Seascanaig Gaillim"). AKA - "Maids of Galway (1) (The)." AKA and see "Gearrchailiú Chontae Mhuigheo," "Hag's Reel (The)," "Mayo Lasses (The)," "Paddy’s Gone to France," "Traynor's Rambles." Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB (Kennedy, O'Neill/1850 & 1001): AABB (Cole): AABB' (Mulvihill, O'Neill). The tune under this name appears to be the earliest printing of this tune family, in the 1883 Ryan's Mammoth Collection. See also the similar tunes "The Mayo Lasses," "Turf House Reel," and the Cape Breton "West Mabou Reel." Some see resemblances to "George White's Favorite/Fancy" family of tunes. Cognate tunes are "Johnny When You Die (1)" (as recorded on the album "Kerry Fiddles"), "Girls of County Mayo," and "Come into the Room I Want You" (recorded by Dan Sullivan's Shamrock Band). A distanced version of "Old Maids of Galway" called "Jenny Picking Cockles (3)" (not the tune that usually gets played under this title) was found by researcher Conor Ward in the c. 1885 music copybook of fiddler Francis Reynolds of Gaigue, Ballinamuck, County Longford.
