Annotation:Mullingar Lee (The)
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MULLINGAR LEA. AKA - "Mulligar Lea (The)." AKA and see "Nine Pint Coggie (1) (The)," "Streets of Mulligar (The)," "Pint of Ale (The)." Irish, Reel. G Major/Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Miller & Perron): AAB (Vallely). The tune was recorded as "Mullingar Lee" in 1937 in New York by Donegal fiddler Hugh Gillespie [1] (1906-1986), his first recording session.
Gillespie emigrated to New York in 1928, and went to live with an uncle. He quickly made connections with the expatriate Irish music community. Upstairs lived Neil Smith, the percussion (bones) player who accompanied fiddler Packie Dolan on his recordings, and he was introduced to fiddler Michael Coleman within four days of his arrival. Coleman took him on as a protege, and though Gillespie worked during the day as an engineer for Con-Ed, he broadcast daily with Coleman on local radio stations. Gillespie also played in other bands (his cousin, Jim Gillespie, an accordion player led several). However, it was Coleman who gave Gillespie his chance to record by introducing him to the studio manager when Gillespie accompanied Coleman to one of the latter's recording session. After a successful test session, Gillespie was invited back and made four sides in his initial studio date, returning in 1938 and 1939 to record subsequent sides.
Source for notated version: Kerry fiddler Paddy Cronin, long a resident of Boston, Massachusetts [Miller & Perron].
Printed sources: Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 1977; vol. 3, No. 29 (appears as "Paddy Cronin Reel"). Miller & Perron (Irish Traditional Fiddle Music), 2nd Edition, 2006; p. 91. Vallely (Play 50 Reels with the Armagh Pipers Club), 1982; No. 5, p. 5.
Recorded sources: Cló Iar Chonnachta CICD 165, John Wynne & John McEvoy - "Pride of the West" (2007. Learned from fiddler Paddy Carty, Loughrea, Co. Galway). Decca 12112 (78 RPM), Hugh Gillespie (1937). Rounder 1123, Hugh Gillespie - "Milestone in the Garden" (1996).
See also listings at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]