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Annotation:I Wish I Never Seen You (2)
X:1 T:I Wish I Never Seen You [2] M:C L:1/8 R:Reel B:Stephen Grier music manuscript collection (Book 2, c. 1883, ) B: http://grier.itma.ie/book-two#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=34&z=116.5781%2C196.8073%2C2842.5377%2C1230.1919 N:Stephen Grier (c. 1824-1894) was a piper and fiddler from N:Newpark, Bohey, Gortletteragh, south Co. Leitrim. Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:G dcBA G2 GB|dGBG dGBG|dcBA GABG|1 Eeed efge:|2 Eeed e2g2|| defg bagf|gedB gedB|defg bagf|gfed e2g2| dega b2 bf|gedB g2 ga|bgaf gfed|Beed efge||
I WISH I NEVER SEEN YOU [2]. AKA - "House of Blazes (The)." AKA and see "John Roy Stewart (2)," "Och a bhodaich na hi ruim," "Raza's Reel." Irish, Reel (cut time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. "I Wish I Never Seen You [2]" is a variant of "I Wish I Never Saw You (1)," versions of which are in two late 19th century music manuscripts. First, it was entered into the 1883 music ms. collection of Stephen Grier, or Gorteleigh, County Leitrim, as "I Wish I Never Seen You", and second, it appears in the late 19th century music manuscript that was in the possession of Rev. Luke Donnellan, Oriel, south Ulster, although under the title "The House of Blazes"[1].
Donnellan's House of Blazes title is unique and speculative. House of Blazes was the name of an early 19th century public house in Dublin at Aston Quay, and was also a place-name in Townland Sluggan, Omagh No. 2 Dispensary District, in the Parish of Termon McGuirk, Co. Tyrone. The latter was said to have been the house of a woman named Bandhu: "Before railways came she supplied meals for carters. On their way from Belfast they arrived here during the night. The house was always a blaze of lights all night, and visible for a long distance"[2] Finally, the name of a Hells Kitchen (New York City) 'rookery' (what they used to call dilapidated, densely packed, rickety wooden slums), was, according to a September, 1881, New York Times article, called the House of Blazes, purportedly so named because the residents would, for fun, light unconscious drunks on fire.
- ↑ Donnellan researcher Gerry O'Connor came to believe the ms. is not the work of the curate but rather was originally compiled by an unknown but able fiddler over the course of a playing lifetime, probably in the late 19th century. The ms. later came into the possession of Donnellan, who was also a fiddler.
- ↑ George Gillespie, "Some Place Names in Omagh No. 2 Dispensary District in the Parish of Termon McGuirk, Co. Tyrone", The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland Seventh Series, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Dec. 31, 1936), p. 308.
