Annotation:Top of Slieve Gullion (The)

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X:1 T:Top of Slieve Gullion, The M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Slow and sad" B:Joyce – Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909, No. 627) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:F dc|c2 B/G/F G>F|F4 FG|{=B}c2 cd c/_B/c|B4 F/G/B|d2d2 cB|cB dc B G/F/|G2F2F2|F4||

TOP OF THE SLIEVE GULLION, THE. Irish, Air (3/4 time, "slow and sad"). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "Song on James Murphy, who was executed on that hill in 1798" (Joyce).

Additional notes
Source for notated version : - Hugh O'Beirne, professional piper^[1] from Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, c. 1846 (Joyce).

Printed sources : - Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 627, p. 320.

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↑ P.W. Joyce concluded that O'Beirne had been a fiddler in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909, p. 296). However, William Forde, the only collector who had direct contact with O'Beirne, wrote in a letter to John Windele of Cork, dated Sept. 21, 1846, that he had obtained over 150 airs from a piper, Hugh Beirne. Forde was seeking to supplement his collection with music from Connaught and the north, and was glad to make the musician's acquaintance, staying on in Ballinamore longer than he originally planned. He also found O'Beirne in poor health in the time of Great Famine, writing "Stirabout and bad potatoes were working fatally on a sinking frame," and aided the piper by improving his diet ("but a mutton chap twice a day has changed Hugh's face wonderfully").

[1] P.W. Joyce concluded that O'Beirne had been a fiddler in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909, p. 296). However, William Forde, the only collector who had direct contact with O'Beirne, wrote in a letter to John Windele of Cork, dated Sept. 21, 1846, that he had obtained over 150 airs from a piper, Hugh Beirne. Forde was seeking to supplement his collection with music from Connaught and the north, and was glad to make the musician's acquaintance, staying on in Ballinamore longer than he originally planned. He also found O'Beirne in poor health in the time of Great Famine, writing "Stirabout and bad potatoes were working fatally on a sinking frame," and aided the piper by improving his diet ("but a mutton chap twice a day has changed Hugh's face wonderfully").

[1]