Annotation:Delaney's Frolics
X:1 T:Delaney's Frolics M:4/4 L:1/8 S:Capt. F. O'Neill Z:Paul Kinder R:Reel K:Dmix c|:B2 Bc A2 Bc|dBcA BE ~E2|B2 Bc A2 fg|afeg fd d2:|| K:D fddc dfaf|gfed cdeg|fddc defd|eaag ed d2| fddc dfaf|gfed cdeg|f2 fd g2 ge|afge fd d2||
DELANEY'S FROLICS. AKA and see "Dunboyne Straw-Plaiters (The)," "Ha'porth of Tea (A)." Irish, Reel. D Mixolydian ('A' part) & D Major ('B' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. The tune was named for Chicago piper Barney Delaney, a contemporary of collector and flute player Captain Francis O'Neill. Delaney was O'Neill's brother-in-law, who found him a job on the Chicago police force. O'Neill was critical of Delaney, however, not for his piping ability, which he respected, but for his miserliness with tunes which O'Neill feared would by lost when Delaney died. "Delaney's Frolics" was first recorded about the year 1900 by piper Patsy Tuohey, on a privately made and issued cylinder recording. Tuohey, originally from Galway, was the outstanding professional piper of his era and managed to make a living touring the United States along with his wife.
The first publication of the melody was in P.W. Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music and Songs (1909), under the title "The Dunboyne Straw-Plaiters," obtained from a Dublin piper who had picked up the tune in North Kildare. Researchers Fr. John Quinn and Conor Ward find a cognate version as an untitled reel (Grier No. 267) in Book 2 of the large c. 1883 music manuscript collection of County Leitrim fiddler and piper biography:Stephen Grier (c. 1824-1894).
