Friday 7 June 2024
Tune of the Day: The Miners of Wicklow
Traditional Irish jig
This jig was first published in Glasgow by James Aird, in the first volume of his Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs (1782).
The Wicklow Mountains in south-eastern Ireland are granite formations shaped by the collision of continental plates. As the rock cooled, cracks formed, which were filled with mineral dense hot fluids, that eventually formed veins of metal ore. Various metals have been extracted from the Wicklows since the Bronze Age, but the title of this tune probably refers to the lead mines that came to the Vale of Avoca in the 1750s.