Saturday 7 October 2023
Tune of the Day: The Boys of Ballinamore
Traditional Irish jig
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's celebrated collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. O'Neill obtained the tune from a seventeen year old fiddler named George West, who, though gifted musically, was somewhat indigent and did not own a fiddle. He had formed a symbiotic musical relationship of sorts with one O'Malley, who did own a fiddle and who eked out a meager living playing house parties despite the loss of a finger from his left hand. Invariably, however, O'Malley could only make it to midnight before he got too drunk to bow, at which time West took over his fiddle and finished the night's engagement.