Annotation:Flaming O'Flanigan's
X:1 T:Flaming O'Flanigan's M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:Ryan's Mammoth Collection (1883) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:C (c/d/) | efe ded | cdc ceg | abc' gfe | edd dgf | e3 dcd | cdc ceg | abc' gfe | fdB c2 :|| (g/f/) | efg g2g | g>ag abc' | gfe edc | Bcd d2g | efg g2g | g>ag abc' | g>fee dc | Bcd dgf ||
FLAMING O'FLANIGAN'S JIG. AKA and see "Hey Dance to the Fiddle and Tabor," "Irish Jig (4)," "Nothing Can Sadden Us." Irish, Jig (6/8 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABA. New York City researcher, writer and musician Don Meade finds the title to be taken from a 19th century song, with a chorus that goes:
Hooroo! Whack!
For that was the way with the Flaming O'Flannagans,
From the first illigant boys of that name;
For kissing and courting, and filling the can again,
Drinking and fighting like cocks of the game.
Hooroo! Whack!
The tune, originally Irish, was employed by Northumbrian composer William Shield for his opera Lock and Key, first staged in 1796, for the song "Hey Dance to the Fiddle and Tabor." Fr. John Quinn finds the melody to be a version of an untitled jig printed at the beginning of the 19th century by Glasgow musician James Aird ("Irish Jig (4)") and as the vehicle for Thomas Moore's song "Nothing Can Sadden Us." It seems possible, though perhaps a stretch, to think the the inspiration for the "Flaming O'Flannagan" title may have been a miss-hearing of the title "Nothing can sadden us".
