Annotation:Dick Cosgrove's Reel

Back to 

 DICK COSGROVE'S REEL. AKA and see "Drunken Tinker (The)," "Gillespie's Reel (2)." Irish, Reel. G Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. The tune is sometimes called "Gillespie's", from the 1939 recording made in New York by Hugh Gillespie (1906 - 1986, born in Ballybofey, Co. Donegal). The name Cosgrove in association with Gillespie also comes up in regard to a violin, once used by Michael Coleman. The following excerpt is from an article on Coleman in Treoir (No. 7, 1969, p. 12): The four violins which Coleman used when he recorded for the Columbia Co. are now in possession of Messrs. James and John O'Beirne and Paul Ryan of New ''York. and the " Cosgrove" violin now in'' possession of Mr. Hugh Gillespie, Donegal '', Ireland. Coleman 's Decca recordings'' were made on the violins of Mr. Stanley Parker and on Hugh Gillespie's de Nicholas ''violin. and on Coleman 's own violin,'' now in possession of his niece, Mrs. McGovern ''of Sligo. This last violin and the'' "Cosgrove" violin are the only voilins which Coleman's family accept as having ''belonged to Coleman. They reject all other claims.''  Source for notated version: L. Donnelly [Mulvihill].  Printed sources: Mulvihill (1st Collection), 1986; No. 157, p. 43.  Recorded sources: (78 RPM), Hugh Gillespie (1939).

Back to