Annotation:Castle Oliver Chase

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 CASTLE OLIVER CHASE. Irish, Jig. F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Castle Oliver is a baronial manor in County Limerick, long home to the Oliver family. The title possibly refers to an incident involving a member of the family, a landlord named Captain Charles Silver Oliver of Castle Oliver. Patrick 'Staker' Wallis (1733-1798), a local farmer, was a member of the United Irishman and had been elected commanding officer for "the division of Moorestown." Oliver felt particularly threatened and attempted a preemptive arrest of Wallis. Riding out at the had of a troop of Yeomanry, Oliver sought to take him by surprise, but Wallis saw them coming and fled into the Red Bog. There were local men pressed into service of the Yeomanry, however, and it was one of these who, knowing the area, was finally able to chase down Wallis and hold him until Oliver was summoned. Wallis had him taken to Kilfinane, where he was whipped and tortured for information. The United Irishman remained silent, however, and was finally hanged and beheaded, his head being impaled upon a spike above the market house in the square. A stone monument containing a carved head stands at the spot, erected on the 200th anniversary of Wallis's death to commemorate his sacrifice. Source for notated version: "...marked as taken 'from A.P.'s MS. book'" (Joyce). Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song), 1909; No. 735, pp. 364-365. Recorded sources:

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