Tuesday 1 October 2024
Tune of the Day: The Ruins of Killmallock
Traditional Irish jig
This jig is taken from Francis O'Neill's collection Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. It had previously appeared under the title “Old Walls of Liscarroll” in Ryan's Mammoth Collection (Boston, 1883), although with the first strain in minor mode and a few minor differences in the second strain.
Kilmallock, a town of less than 2000 residents in south County Limerick, was during the middle ages the third largest city in Ireland. The ruins of a Dominican friary, built in the 13th century but sacked by Cromwell's forces in 1648, are still visible today, as well as the remains of the medieval walls which encircled the settlement.