Annotation:Scattery Island Slide

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X:1 T:Scattery Island M:6/8 L:1/8 Z:Transcribed by Ken Fleming S:Jackie Daly R:slide K:D |F2A dcd|F2A dcd|{f}e2d cBA|{f}e2d cBA| F2A dcd|F2A dcd|e2d cBA|1 B2c d3:|2B2c d2f|| aba f2e|d3 def|g3 fgf|e3 efg| aba f2e|d3 def|e2A cBA|1 ABc d2f:|2ABc d3||

SCATTERY ISLAND SLIDE. AKA and see “Going for Water,” “Going to the Well for Water (2)." Irish, Slide (12/8 time). Ireland, West Kerry. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Scattery Island is situated in the Shannon estuary between Clare and Kerry, though part of County Clare (it has also been described as “comfortably tucked in a harbor by the mouth of Poulnasherry Bay near Kilrush”); its present name derives from ‘St. Cathigh’s Island,’ or Inis Cathaigh. Another cleric, St. Senan from County Clare, lived there for some time in a monastery and it is said he would travel to and from the island on a flying flagstone. The islanders removed to Kilrush in the 1950's and it remains uninhabited today, save for a large bird population. The islanders’ music seemed to have more stylistically more in common with County Kerry than Clare. An article on Kelly in Dal gCais Magazine 5, 1979 (possibly by Muiris Ó Rócháin), entitled "The Life and Times of John Kelly,” confirms the importance of the Kerry influence. Fiddler Kelly related how his Kerry music came to the island:

My grandmother [Mary Brennan, born on Scattery Island] had a lot of tunes that weren't known in County Clare, polkas, slides and single jigs. She told me that when she was a girl boatloads of people from Kerry would put in to the island almost every Sunday in summer. Then there was a dance in the lighthouse. In this way the Scattery people picked up the Kerry music. From my grandfather and grandmother I learned quite a number of Kerry style tunes . . . later when I got to know (County Clare uilleann piper) Willie Clancy I played these tunes for him. He had never heard of them in his part of the county.

This tune is related to "O'Connell's March to Jara" (in 2/4 time). See also note for “annotation:Going to the Well for Water (2)" for more.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - Black (Music’s the Very Best Thing), 1996; No. 282, p. 151. Mac Amhlaoibh & Durham (An Pota Stóir: Ceol Seite Corca Duibne/The Set Dance Music of West Kerry), No. 75, p. 44. Moylan (Johnny O’Leary of Sliabh Luachra), 1994; No. 167. Sullivan (Session Tunes, vol. 2); No. 40, p. 16.

Recorded sources: - CKCD 01, Conor Keane (Co. Clare) – “Cooley’s House" (1993). Topic 12TFRS 503, John Kelly - "Irish Traditional Concertina and Fiddle Music" (1975). Topic 12TS311, John & Julia Clifford - "The Humours of Lisheen. Music from Sliabh Luachra, vol. 3" (1977).

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index for Recorded Sources [2]

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