RETURN TO MILLTOWN. AKA and see "Ferry Banks (The)," “Glorious Return to Milltown (The),” “Tap the Barrel,” “Tommy Peoples Reel (6).” Irish, Reel. D Minor (‘A’ part) & D Major (‘B’ part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB (Flaherty, Songer): AA’BB’ (Taylor/Tweed). The tune is associated with Donegal fiddler Tommy Peoples who recorded an influential version. However, the source for the tune is County Donegal fiddler John Doherty, who called it “The Glorious Return to Milltown,” and from whom a generation of Donegal fiddlers learned it. While popular in this version in Donegal, its provenance is unknown and it may not be a Donegal reel per se, for the melody is one variant of a family of tunes including “Tap the Barrel,” “Tap Room (The),” and “Roll out the Barrel,” found in the collections of Roche and Hardebeck among others (Roche collected primarily in his home county of Limerick). Although the Milltown of the title is sometimes associated with Miltown Malbay in County Clare, due to the popularity of the huge yearly traditional music festival held there, Caoimhin Mac Aoidh points out that there are Milltowns in nearly every county in Ireland as a result of the ‘industrial revolution’ factories of the 19th century.
Additional notes Source for notated version : - fiddler Tommy Peoples (Co. Donegal) who had it from John Doherty) [Bulmer & Sharpley].
Printed sources : - Bulmer & Sharpley (Music from Ireland vol. 2), 1974; No. 30 (appears as untitled tune). Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; p. 36 (appears as unknown reel). Songer (Portland Collection), 1997; p. 165. Taylor (Traditional Irish Music: Karen Tweed’s Irish Choice), 1994; p. 33.
Recorded sources : - Greentrax Records, "Tony McManus" (1995). Albanach Duo - "The Spirit of the Grain" (2015).
See also listing at : Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
