Annotation:Floggin' (The)

Find traditional instrumental music


Back to Floggin' (The)


X:1 T:Flogging Reel, The M:C L:1/8 Q:"Allegro con Spirito" B:The Dublin Magazine (November, 1842, No. 40) Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:F cB|:AFFB (3AGF cc|AFFB (3ABc fd|AFFB (3AGF cA|GFEF GABG:|| fefc AFAc|fefd efge|fefc AFAc|GFEF GABG| fefc AFAc|fefd efgb|a>fge fedc|GFEF GABG|| AB/c/fc AB/c/fc|ABcfc AF F2|GBcec GBcec|GB/c/ec G_E E2| AB/c/fc AB/c/fc|AB/c/de fefg|afge fedc|GFEF GABG||



FLOGGIN', THE ("An Seisd Buailteac" or "Ríl na Lasctha"). AKA - "The Flogging Reel." AKA and see "Fife Reel (The)," "Flaggon (The)" (Scottish), "Flagon (The)," "Flogging Reel (The)" (Ire.), "Humors of Bantry Bay (1)," "Newry Lass (The)," "Slashing Reel." Irish, Reel. G Major ('A' and 'B' parts) & G Mixolydian ('C' part). Standard tuning (fiddle). ABC (Breathnach, Mallinson, Mitchell): AABC (Howe, O'Neill/1915 & 1001, Prior, Taylor): AABCC (Allan's, Gow): AABBC (O'Neill/1850): AABB'CC (O'Neill/Krassen). As "The Flogging Reel" the tune is a popular reel in County Donegal. Breathnach (1976) says it is related to "Fife Reel (The);" see also the first part of "Pirrie Wirrie." O'Neill (1913) mentions this tune in an anecdote about uilleann piper Patrick Ward, a 19th century farmer-piper of Blackbull, Drogheda. Ward was an accomplished fiddler before he picked up the pipes, but learned, as most did, by ear. His first lesson in writing music was not without difficulty; "having neither pen nor ink, he was told by his teacher, 'a dark man', to burn a furze stick and write with its calcined end. This expedient served fairly well. From that day to this he says that whenever he takes a pen in his hand to write music his mind reverts to "the Flogging Reel," which was the first tune set down in the manner mentioned." The reel was remembered by Kilmaley, County Clare, fiddler, flute player and uilleann piper Peader O'Loughlin as one of the tunes he listened to his father, a flute player, play in the 1930's (Blooming Meadows, 1998). The title appears in a list of tunes in his repertoire brought by Philip Goodman, the last professional and traditional piper in Farney, Louth, to the Feis Ceoil in Belfast in 1898 (Breathnach, 1997), and a standard notation transcription was included in the c. 1890's music manuscript collection of "Professor" Patrick D. Reidy, a dancing master resident in London who taught at Gaelic League functions. The tunes in Reidy's MS were collected from musicians who accompanied dancers at the time. The melody was also cited as having commonly been played for country dances in Orange County, New York, in the 1930's (under the title "Flogging Reel") {Lettie Osborn, New York Folklore Quarterly}.


Paddy Conneely, the Galway piper.


Additional notes
Source for notated version : - The c. 1909 music manuscript collection of Rev. Luke Donnellan (south Ulster) [O'Connor][1].

Printed sources : - Breathnach (Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. II), 1976; No. 184, p. 96 ("Ril an Lasctha" {The Flogging Reel}). Breathnach (The Man & his Music), 1996; No. 7, p. 104. Carlin (The Gow Collection), 1986; No. 254 (appears as "The Flaggon"). Cole (1000 Fiddle Tunes), 1940; p. 7. Hudson (The Dublin Magazine), November, 1842; No. 40. Giblin (Collection of Traditional Irish Dance Music), 1928; 26. P.M. Haverty (One Hundred Irish Airs vol. 2), 1858; No. 188, p. 85. Elias Howe (Musician’s Omnibus Nos. 6 & 7), Boston, 1880-1882; p. 638. Mallinson (100 Essential), 1995; No. 26, p. 12. McDermott (Allan's Irish Fiddler), No. 58, p. 14. Mitchell (Dance Music of Willie Clancy), 1993; No. 118, p. 98. Gerry O'Connor (The Rose in the Gap), 2018; No. 46, p. 44. O'Neill (O'Neill's Irish Music), 1915; No. 263, p. 135 (appears as "The Flogging Reel"). O'Neill (Krassen), 1976; p. 97 (appears as "Flogging Reel"). O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 1206, p. 227 (appears as "Flogging Reel"). O'Neill (Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems), 1907; No. 482, p. 92 (appears as "The Flogging Reel"). Prior (Fionn Seisiún 3), 2007; p. 19. Robbins Music Corp. (The Robbins collection of 200 jigs, reels and country dances), New York, 1933; No. 122, p. 39. Ryan's Mammoth Collection, 1883; p. 27. Taylor (Music for the Sets: Yellow Book), 1995; p. 28. Treoir, vol. 40, No. 4, 2008; p. 22.

Recorded sources : - Columbia A-2094 (78 RPM), John J. Kimmel (1916). Compass Records 7 4407 2, Ciaran Tourish - "Down the Line" (2005). Edison 52499 (78 RPM), John J. "Dutch" Kimmel (accordion player from New York City), 1929. Island ILPS 9501, "The Chieftains Live" (1977). Rounder 7004, Joe Cormier - "The Dances Down Home" (1977. Appears as "The Flaggon"). Mick Coyne - "Both Sides of the Coyne."

See also listing at :
Alan Snyder's Cape Breton Fiddle Recording Index [1]
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [2]
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [3]



Back to Floggin' (The)

0.00
(0 votes)




  1. Donnellan researcher Gerry O'Connor (2018) believes the music manuscript that now bears the Oriel (south Ulster) cleric and fiddler's name was not his original work. Rather, he thinks that the ms. was the work of an unknown but musically competent musician and reflects the repertory of a musical lifetime's playing and collecting. O'Connor speculates that ms. later came into the possession of Donnellan.