‘ The Man from Bundoran’ is a reel that is synonymous with
Paddy Kelly, winner of the senior fiddle title at the first
Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 1951. Originally from Fintona,
County Tyrone he would regularly cycle from his hometown
to play concerts in Bundoran. He would often warm up by
playing for the dancers at the Rougey cliffs overlooking Donegal
Bay. In the 1930s he moved to Bundoran permanently
with his family. He brought some of his own Tyrone fiddle
style and repertoire with him. He became synonymous with
a version of ‘Hayden’s Favourite’. He is perhaps now best
known for the reel “’The Man from Bundoran’. According to
his son Pat, “I think Altan got it from me but I didn’t have a
name for it so they just called it ‘The Man from Bundoran’.”
The tune is also known as Paddy Kelly ’s or The Humours of Kinvara. It was recorded by Altan on their third studio album, released in 1992 on the Green Linnet label.

1 The Man From Bundoran:The White Heather:The Trip To Ballyshannon

The Magho Snaps is a quintessential Fermanagh jig. This tune is synonymous with Derrygonnelly fiddle legend Mick Hoy. He
learned it from the fiddle player Pat Carty from Garrison. According to local folklore the contours of the tune follow the bumpy shore road from
Belleek to Enniskillen. The snap refers to the whiplash effect that musicians returning from a late session experienced on their drive home. However, the Magho Snaps refers to the small hills between the Cliffs of Magho and the lake.

The Loughsiders jig was composed by John Gordon. It appeared on an album of the same name that he recorded with All-Ireland Champion accordion Kevin Loughlin from Belleek. The Loughsiders is also the name of a book by the writer Shan Bullock, the Thomas Hardy of Fermanagh. He describes the genteel nature of the Loughsiders…” By nature, and acquirement, almost of necessity, considering the circumstances of their remote, uneventful lives, the Loughsiders are wonderful talkers… they make an art of it. They hate plain statement, delight in friendly badinage, have a gift at innuendo; are seldom at a loss for a retort...They revel in details. They exaggerate. All their geese
are swans”.

John Gordon also wrote ‘The Humours of Drumcully’. It was normally played as part of a set with the Loughsiders jig. Gordon christened the tune to commemorate the townland of his birth.

(excerpts from the book/CD Songs of Erne: Volume 1) available at www.songsoferne.com

Songs of Erne: Volume 1 (Traditional Music from South Donegal and West Fermanagh)

2 The Magho Snaps:The Loughsiders:The Humours Of Drumcully

Paddy Tunney (1921-2002), the Man of Songs was an Irish traditional singer, poet and writer. At an early age, his family moved to Mulleek, in County Fermanagh near the border village of Belleek. Tunney described the area around Lough Erne’s shores as ‘a land where men walked and talked tall and there was a rich music in their mode of speech’. His father got a job on the construction of the Boa Island bridges. His mother, Bridget Gallagher from Pettigo came from a long line of traditional singers. She was the biggest influence on his music. In his book ‘ The Stone Fiddle’ he described the first tim
 he heard the song ‘As I Roved Out’…

‘Meadow mane rippled with corncrakes and scythe steel sang to whetstone. The air ached with the pain and joy of loving. It was the time that turned my mother to songs of love and longing...She sang me for the first time that exquisitely beautiful song: As I Roved out or The False Bride’.

3 As I Roved Out

Mazurka’s are popular tunes in the Donegal fiddle repertoire. It is in 3/4 time and originated in the Mazovia province of Poland. This dance-form became popular in trendy Berlin and Paris in the 18th century before arriving in Britain around 1830. It was subsequently adopted into the Donegal tradition as a couple dance. It is no longer commonly danced but a number of mazurka’s formed part of the fiddlers such as John Doherty and Francie Mooney.

According to musicologist Caoimhín Mac Aoidh, the Mullnashee Mazurka is quite rare and appears to be known only in the local area. Mullaghnashee is a historic ‘fairy hill’. Its name Mullach Aoidh na Sí recalls the burial place of Aoidh or Hugh after whom the Assaroe Fallls were named. ‘Red Hugh’ is thought to have ruled Ireland in the 3rd century B.C. According to legend he was drowned in the river and buried on the hill.

It was also thought to have been the site of a royal residence for Conal Gulban, son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, who gave his name to Tír Chonaill. During the Jacobite-Williamite War, forces loyal to King William of Orange erected a fortification on the hill because of its strategic position. Another fortification was built on the hill during the 1798 Rebellion.

The Boa Island Reel was composed by John Gordon. The tune was commissioned by the well-known historian John Cunningham to coincide with one of his publications. The tune was sometimes called “Mairéad Mc- Cann’s Reel” after John Gordon’s piano accompaniment in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Boa Island is named after Badhbh, the Celtic goddess of war. Caldragh Cemetery is in the townland of Dreenan (from ‘draighneán’ meaning ‘blackthorn place’), towards the southern shore of the island. The graveyard is home of the mysterious Janus figure and the Lusty Man. The carving of the large twoheaded figure suggests a Celtic late pre-Christian or early Christian origin. The head was of great importance in Celtic culture. Celtic warriors decapitated their enemies after battle because they believed that their head contained their spirit after death. Severed heads were carried away in triumph after battle. The graveyard also contains a “Sile na Gig.” These female carvings are found within many religious structures in Ireland. They vary in size but are all feature enlarged genitals. Many were carved during the middle ages.

Francis John McGovern’s is a version of the tune “The Worn Torn Petticoat.” This version was made popular by Francis John McGovern, a Fermanagh musician who lived most of his life in Kiltyclogher. It has been recorded by both Ben and
Charlie Lennon.

Songs of Erne: Volume 1

4 The Mullaghnashee Mazurka:Boa Island Reel:The Worn Torn Petticoat

The Assaroe Hornpipe takes its name from the majestic
waterfalls that were located at the mouth of
the Erne before completion of the hydroelectric
dam. According to older local players, bars 5 and 6
of the second part of the tune are meant to mimic
the leaping of the salmon over the falls.
In the 19th century many travel writers who passed
through Ballyshannon repeatedly cited the waterfall
as the town’s most stunning attraction. They were
particularly impressed by the sheer numbers of
the salmon leaping the falls. The salmon leap was a
meeting place which William Allingham described the
waterfall as the heartbeat of the town.

No more on pleasant evenings
We’ll saunter down the Mall,
When the trout is rising to the fly
The salmon to the fall

The Erne hornpipe was written by Pat Kelly, ‘ The Man from Bundoran’. His family came from Fintona in the tor Seamus Ennis.
1930s. His grandfather Johnny Kelly was a fiddle player too. Pat started the fiddle at a young age and became
quite accomplished. During the summer months of the 1950s many touring musicians, including fiddle
virtuoso Sean Maguire regularly called into the Kelly ’s home for a chat and to play some tunes. Felix Doran,
the travelling piper was also a visitor. Pat, along with his father Paddy, had a group at the time called the
Ocean Céilí Band. They had a summer residency in St. Patrick’s Hall. Felix Doran was playing on the street
when Paddy Kelly first heard him. He immediately convinced Doran to sit in on that night ’s concert. The
concert was such a success that Doran played with
the band for the rest of the season.

5 The Assaroe Hornpipe:The Erne Hornpipe

By 1952, there was a renewed effort to collect and document the ‘rich vein of Ulster idiom’. Omagh-born writer Benedict Kiely led the charge with his radio program the Nine Counties of Ulster. Sean MacRéamoinn
travelled north with a mobile recorder to gather material for Kiely ’s show. Meanwhile Seamus Ennis was continuing his research in the Gaeltacht areas of Connemara and Donegal. BBC Northern Ireland held a recording session for local traditional singers, musicians, and storytellers in Enniskillen. Paddy Tunney was present and
some months after the broadcast, Tunney received a letter from Sean O’Boyle, a scholar and authority on Irish traditional song. He told Tunney that he would be in Northern Ireland that summer and that he
would like to meet. Thus, began a friendship that endured for many years and produced some iconic field recordings. O’Boyle produced programmes such as Music on the Hearth and publications such as
The Irish Song Tradition. He also worked with Peter Kennedy and Seamus Ennis to produce the long-running BBC programme ‘As I Roved Out’. Tunney recalls one night in Belfast where he, Sean O’Boyle and his Sean’s Charles sang and swapped versions of songs ‘all night until the grey daylight was peeping in’. Liam Andrews was also present. He sang Lovely Willie, a song that Tunney ‘fell in love with at first sound’.

6 Lovely Willie

William Allingham is best known as a poet but he also played fiddle and collected tunes from the area. He scoured the workhouses to record the repertoires of the locals. In 1847, he collected ‘Ain Kin Dearie’ and ‘Paudeen O Rafferty ’ from Tom Read in Ballyshannon. He submitted songs to ‘ The Petrie Collection of the Ancient Music of Ireland’, one of which was a local song named ‘It was an Old Beggarman, Wet and Weary’.

He also submitted a tune in 9/8 time (slip jig) named Kitty O Hea. In 1851 he published an essay on “Irish Ballad Singers and Street Ballads”. He collected folksongs and adapted the words to fit the mood of the melody. He had these printed in Dublin and sold these broadsheets at fairs and markets and consequently got to hear some of his songs being absorbed into the local traditional repertoire. The poet John Hewitt wrote about the influence that music had on Allingham’s work… “Although he contrived no more than a fistful of songs…he pioneered a mode and technique which has had its lasting triumphs at the hands of Yeats, Colum and Joseph Campbell”. William Butler Yeats said “pleasant destiny has made him the poet of his native town, and put “The Winding Banks of Erne” into the mouths of the ballad singers of Ballyshannon”. Allingham’s Music Master paints a vivid picture of the musical landscape of 19th century South Donegal…

“And hear the frequent fiddle that would glide
Through jovial mazes of a jig or reel,
Or sink from sob to sob with plaintive slide,
Or mount the steps of swift exulting zeal;
For our old village was with music fill’d
Like any grove where thrushes wont to build.
Mixt with the roar of bellows and of flame,
Perhaps the reed-voice of a clarionet
From forge’s open ruddy shutter came;
Or round some hearth were silent people set,
“Where the low flute, with plaintive quivering, ran on
Through “Colleen Dheas” or “ Hawk of Ballyshannon.’

7 Mo Chailin Deas Ruaidh:It Was An Old Beggarman:Kitty O'Hea

Given the antiquity of ‘Ireland’s oldest inhabited town’, it is not surprising that Ballyshannon has a musical tradition that stretches back for hundreds of years. The blind harpist and composer Rory Dall Ó Catháin wrote ‘The Hawk of Ballyshannon’ around 1640. Other sources date the composition as earlier. It is thought the tune was written as a tribute to the Fermanagh chieftain Philip McGuire. Ó Catháin is best known for his composition of Tabhair dom do Lámh. The following story of the tune’s origin comes from Arthur O’Neill’s
memoirs…

“He [Rory Dall] took a fancy to visit Scotland, where there were great harpers. He took his retinue (or suite) with him. Amongst other visits in the style of an Irish chieftain he paid one to a Lady Eglinton, and she not
knowing his rank) in a peremptory manner demanded a tune, which he declined as he only came to play to amuse her, and in an irritable manner left the house. However, when she was informed of his consequence she eagerly contrived a reconciliation and made an apology, and the result was that he composed a tune for her ladyship, the handsome tune of ‘Da mihi manum’ (‘Give me your hand’), for which his fame reached through Scotland and came to the ears of the Gunpowder Plot prophet James the First of England (then the Sixth of
Scotland) …” 

Irish bards were members of an inherited profession. They were bestowed a superior social status and a comprehensive training in residential schools. Bardic poetry was very complex and filled with strict rules and set forms that required great compositional skills. Poems were written in praise of the Prince or Chief of the noble families. The theme usually revolved around feats in battle, cattle raids or political victories.
The patron’s genealogy would be explored and his ancestors eulogised. Enemies would be derided and struck down with the pen. The poem was then recited by the reacaire from memory accompanied by the harp.

8 The Hawk Of Ballyshannon

This song was written by Joseph Maguire from Ballinamallard, County
Fermanagh. He was born in in 1899 and attended Primary School in Enniskillen. His mother Ellen was a great ballad singer and his father was an accomplished fiddle player. Joseph left school early and joined the Metropolitan police until its disbandment in 1925. He emigrated to America where his musical talents provided him with regular employment. Every week he along with band members such asthe Sligo fiddle player Paddy Killoran and Frank Quinn from Longford played together, singing Irish ballads
to a homesick audience. As the record companies in America realised 
there was a potentially huge market among the Irish diaspora, they began signing various Irish musicians to record songs and tune about ‘Dear Old Ireland’. Joseph Maguire was signed by Decca Records in 1930. ‘Uncle Joe’ as he was called, went on to record at least 26 songs on this label.

9 Lovely Lough Erne

This unusual hornpipe comes from the Ballyshannon
area. Long after the language had died out in the area the tune was always referred to by its Irish title. Its name, the Cuckoo’s Storm, refers to an old local belief that the first winds of April brought the cuckoo to Ireland. Scairbhín translates as ‘the rough month of the cuckoo’ from the phrase garbh mi na gcuach, and refers to the last two weeks of April and the first two weeks of May. This period often produces extreme changes in weather patterns. Long ago, subsistence farmers had to be intimately in tune with the land and weather. At this ‘hungry time’ of the year they were busy planting and tending their crops which were too young and underdeveloped to produce food. Scairbhín was nature’s way of guaranteeing the crops success. Early ‘unseasonal’ warm weather would allow seeds to germinate, a sudden cold snap would then serve to ‘harden off ’ the young plants, and the howling gales which followed would disperse pollen. Scairbhín overlapped with the arrival of the cuckoo. Its call heralded the arrival of early spring and the milder weather which was sure to come, but which had not yet quite appeared.

Hornpipes emerged from the British maritime tradition in the mid to late 18th century. Shipping companies employed resident fiddlers to provide music for dancing. After its arrival in Ireland, dancing-masters adopted it as a showpiece. It became the supreme display of intricate foot-work. It differs from a reel in that it is usually played at a slower pace and with a dotted rhythm.

10 Stoirm A' Cúcóg

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Marc Geagan

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