Annotation:Achonry Lasses

Back to Achonry Lasses

---

ACHONRY LASSES (Gearrchailiú Achadh Conaire). AKA – "Gearrchailiú Achadh Conaire," "Aconry Lasses (The)," "Loughs of Cavan (The)." Irish, Reel. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The melody appears to have Sligo associations, particularly as the title is a Sligo place name. Achonry is the site of monastic ruins that date to the 6th century A.D. The tune was recorded in 1927 by County Sligo fiddler Tom Gannon, and Breandán Breathnach transcribed the reel in 1966 from the playing of fiddler Sonny McDonagh, of Bunanadden, Co. Sligo. Ed Reavy's son Joe, who edited the published collection of his father's tunes, included it as "Loughs of Cavan (The)" and credited to Ed, though Mick Moloney has written that the elder Reavy only began composing tunes in the 1930's.

Source for notated version: fiddler Sonny McDonagh, 1966 (Bunanadden, Co. Sligo, Ireland) [Breathnach].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ 2), 1976; No. 158, p. 84. Breathnach (Tacar Port, vol. 1), 1961; no. 4.

Recorded sources: Tom Gannon, Victor 78 rpm disc 20712, 1927. Planxty, Words and Music, WEA LP 240101 1, 1983.

---