Annotation:Murphy's Greyhound

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MURPHY'S GREYHOUND (Cú Uí Mhurchú). AKA and see "Galway Girl," "Missing Guest (The)," "O'Reilly's Greyhound," "Outdoor Relief." Irish, Reel. A Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Breathnach): AABB (Flaherty). O'Neill has the tune as "Missing Guest (The)" and "O'Reilly's Greyhound," the latter sourced to non-other than "O'Reilly," perhaps blind Galway piper Martin O'Reilly whose picture graces the frontispiece of O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland (1907). See also the related "Lovely Molly." "Murphy's Greyhound" was one of the twenty recordings made in 1926 and 1927 by Anglo-concertina player William Mullaly, the first Irish player of that instrument to record. Mullaly was born in 1884 near Rathconrath, outside Mullingar, County Westmeath, and emigrated to America in the second decade of the 20th century, landing in New York. His sides were recorded in Camden, New Jersey. Mullaly largely disappears from recorded record soon after making his recordings, and is said to have given his concertina to a nephew in Philadelphia. He is thought to have died around 1959, in one of the southern states.

Sources for notated versions: the late fiddler Martin "Junior" Crehan, 1959 (Miltown Malbay, Co. Clare, Ireland) [Breathnach]; flute and whistle player Noel Tansey (b. 1940, Cuilmore, County Sligo) [Flaherty].

Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ II), 1976; No. 251, p. 130. Flaherty (Trip to Sligo), 1990; p. 96 (appears as "Unknown").

Recorded sources:

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Hear the tune played by Seamus MacMathuna at the Comhaltas Archive [3] (2nd tune, following "Rose in the Garden (The)").