Annotation:Kit O'Mahony's Hornpipe
X:1 T:Kit O'Mahony's Hornpipe M:C| L:1/8 R:Hornpipe S:O'Neill - Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907), No. 838 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G GA | B2 BG A2 AG | FGAB cAFD | BGBd cAGF | D2G2G2 GA | B2 BG A2 AG | FGAB cAFD | fefd cAGF | D2G2G2 :| |: D2 | GABc d2g2 | defd cAGF | GABc d2 ef | gage d2 ef | gage fgfd | efed cdeg | {g}fefd cAGF | D2G2G2 :|
KIT O'MAHONY'S HORNPIPE (Crannciuil Cait Ni Matgamna). AKA - "Druid's Field (The)." AKA and see "Marsáil an Fhiadh," "Miss Redmond's Hornpipe." Irish, Hornpipe (whole or cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Kit, for Catherine, O'Mahony (c. 1812-1900) was compiler Captain Francis O'Neill's mother. She was raised in the musical household of her parents, Donal and Mary O'Mahony, a 'latter-day chieftain' who kept open house for travelling musicians near Drimoleague in west Cork. Later in life Kit lilted and sung the melodies she had learned and transmitted them to her own children (Carolan, 1997). Seen also "Kit O'Mahony's Jig" from the same source.
Alan Jabbour says the tune is from a large tune family that includes O'Neill's "Touch Me If You Dare (1)," Petrie's "Take Her Out and Air Her (3)," Joyce's "Miss Redmond's Hornpipe" and Ford's "Gilderoy (4)." American fiddler Henry Reed had a variant (called simply "British Field March") from an elderly fiddler and fife player named Quince Dillon, and claimed it had been played by the British to retreat in the Battle of New Orleans. British roots are furthered by the minor-key variant "Sportsman's Hornpipe" from Joseph Kershaw's (Saddleworth, ) early 19th century manuscripts. A cognate hornpipe was sent by Irish antiquarian Grattan Flood to P.W. Joyce, who published it in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909) as "Miss Redmond's Hornpipe." Paddy Ryan (Treoir, vol. 35, No. 3, 2003) says "This hornpipe and the Jig of the same name were two tunes many older musicians associate with the music of (Connolly-Kilmaley fiddler) Highdie Doohan and his musical comrades Paddy Murphy, Peadar O'Loughlin and Paddy Canny" (it was a favorite tune of Clare concertina player Paddy Murphy of Kilmaley, who had his own unique version). Accordion player Finbarr Dwyer recorded the tune as "Druid's Field (The)."
