Annotation:Fox on the Prowl

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 FOX ON THE PROWL, THE. AKA and see "Josie McDermott's (2)." Irish, Reel. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AA'BB. Composed by flute player Vincent Broderick, originally from Bullaun, near Loughrea, County Galway, near the famous Iron Age monument called the Turoe Stone,. Broderick (The Turoe Stone). Broderick explains (in Vallely & Piggott's Blooming Meadows, 1998) that the tune's title came from an incident Broderick happened on while employed building houses outside Ballinasloe. It seems a neighboring farmer had a lovely daughter whose virtue he guarded well. The girls mother was more sympathetic to the fact that the lass had a secret boyfriend, whose signal for an tryst was to rattle the family's hen-house door to start the chickens cackling. The mother, on hearing the noise and knowing its meaning, would conspicuously tell young Mary to go out and check the poultry, for the fox was on the prowl again tonight. "The Fox on the Prowl" is one of Broderick's better tunes.  Source for notated version:  Printed sources:  Recorded sources: Larraga MMR112000, Mike & Mary Rafferty - "The Road from Ballinakill" (2001). Turlach Boylan - "The Tidy Cottage" (appears as "Mary Finn's Reel." Chris Droney.

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