Annotation:Mrs. Galvin's Favourite

Back to 

 MRS. GALVIN’S FAVOURITE (Rogha Bhean Uí Ghalbháin). AKA and see “Garraí na Saileog,” “Miss Galvin’s,” Woodford Fling (The).” Irish, Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Mrs. Galvin was a fiddler and/or concertina player from just west of Kilkee, (althought she was originally from Lack, near Kilmihil), known to have been a lively player. This from a 1979 article in Dal gCais magazine: “Her family, McCarthy by name, were a musical people, and their house was a regular visiting place for the Inagh piper Garrett Barry, who is regarded as something of a father figure in the musical heritage of Clare. She became a close personal friend of Barry's before his death in 1901 and was perhaps one of the few people living in the 1930s who could speak authoritatively about the famous piper…Mrs. Galvin was a regualr competitor at Feiseanna in the 1920s and at one memorable Feis in Kilkee, in 1927, John remembers being present as she and Patsy Geary fought for first place in the fiddle competition. Geary beat her on that occasion, a feat which his son Sean used joyously refer to long afterwards as the time when 'the old man made the "Tocht" roll her sleeves down'. She was sometimes known as the Tocht [= 'mattress'] Galvin because she was such a fat woman, and she had the habit of playing the fiddle with her sleeves rolled up."    Source for notated version: Mrs. Galvin, from whom fiddler John Kelly/Seán O'Kelly learned the tune [Breathnach].  Printed sources: Breathnach (CRÉ I), 1963; No. 211, p. 85.  Recorded sources:    See also listing at: Alan Ng's Irishtune.info

Back to