Brennan on the Moor

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Theme code Index	3354 3111
Also known as
Composer/Core Source
Region	Ireland
Genre/Style	Irish
Meter/Rhythm	Air/Lament/Listening Piece
Key/Tonic of	D
Accidental	2 sharps
Mode	Ionian (Major)
Time signature	4/4
History
Structure	AB
Editor/Compiler	P.W. Joyce
Book/Manuscript title	Book:Old Irish Folk Music and Songs
Tune and/or Page number	No. 379, pp. 186-187.
Year of publication/Date of MS	1909
Artist
Title of recording
Record label/Catalogue nr.
Year recorded
Media
Score ()

BRENNAN ON THE MOOR. Irish, Air. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "One of the most celebrated bagpipe tunes in 1770," states Grattan Flood (1906), who identified it as a setting of a song written in praise of a noted Irish Tory or Rapparee named William Brennan. Irish collector P.W. Joyce (1909) had the ballad on broadsheets printed by Haly of Cork in the 1840's, but states that he prints the melody for the first time, taken from a ballad-singer in Trim in the 1850's. Willie Brennan's fame stems from the fact that he was one of the last of the noted highwaymen of the 18th century whose ballywhick was the Kilworth Mountains near Fermoy in Cork. He was a Robin Hood figure in local memory, who is said to had shed no blood in his exploits. Brennan too met a violent end in 1804 when he was captured at Clonmore in northern Tipperary and hanged at Clonmel in the same county.

'Tis of a brave young highwayman this story I will tell
His name was Willie Brennan and in Ireland he did dwell
It was on the Kilwood Mountain he commenced his wild career
And many a wealthy nobleman before him shook with fear

It was Brennan on the moor, Brennan on the moor
Bold, brave and undaunted was young Brennan on the moor

Printed source: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 379, pp. 186-187.

X:1
T:Brennan on the Moor
M:C
L:1/8
R:Air
S:Joyce - Old Irish Folk Music and Songs  (1909)
Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion
K:D
D/E/ | FF FF A2 GF | FE D>D D3A | dc ec dF GA | =cB A>F F3A | 
dc ec dF GA |=c>B AF F3d | cB BB B>c d>B | AB AG F3z || 
DE D>D D3z | DF A>A A3d |c>B Bc BA F>E | ED D>D D3 ||