Annotation:Killdroughalt Fair

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KILLDROUGHALT FAIR. AKA - "Kildroughalt Fair." AKA and see "My Lodging is Uncertain," "O Aranmore Loved Aranmore." Irish, Air (whole time). D Minor. Standard tuning (fidle). AB. The tune was first published in Smollet Holden's Collection of Old Established Irish Slow and Quick Tunes, vol. 2 (Dublin, c. 1805), and appeared a few years later in uilleann pipe O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, vol. 2 (London, c. 1808) under the title "My Lodging is Uncertain." Alfred Moffat, in his Minstrelsy of Ireland (1897) remarks:

As " Kildroughalt Fair "this melody was printed in Holden's Collection, vol. ii., 1806 ; it is merely one of the many settings of "Lough Sheeling (2)" (see p. 40). Moore's song was written for the tenth and concluding number of the Melodies, 1734." Another setting of "Kildroughalt Fair" is given in Bunting's second Collection, 1800, as "Bridget O'Neill," and I may be permitted to observe that this tune is evidently the original of the air known in Scotland as "My Only Jo and Dearie," and printed with Richard Gall's beautiful poem, "Thy cheek is like the rose's hue" in the 'Scots Museum', vol. vi., 1803. The air was one of those sung in the pantomime of Harlequin Highlander performed at the circus in Edinburgh. It must be admitted, however, that "My only jo and dearie O" is an infinitely more beautiful form of the air, although perhaps more modern, than either "Kildroughalt Fair" or "Bridget O'Neill."

Thomas Moore's (1779-1852) song "O Arranmore, Loved Arranmore," from his Irish Melodies (1808), was set to this air. Moore's song begins:

Oh! Arranmore, loved Arranmore,
How oft I dream of thee,
And of those days when, by thy shore,
I wander'd young and free.
Full many a path I've tried, since then,
Through pleasure's flowery maze,
But ne'er could find the bliss again
I felt in those sweet days.

Clark Kimberling [1] belives the "Killdroughalt/Kildroughout" title probably is a reference to Kildraught, now Celbridge, in County Kildare.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: -

Printed sources : - P.M. Haverty (One Hundred Irish Airs vol. 3), 1859; 249, p. 221. Smollet Holden (A Collection of favorite Irish Airs), 1810; p. 34. Smollet Holden (Collection of favourite Irish Airs), London, c. 1841; p. 34. Elias Howe (Quadruple Musician's Omnibus). Surenne (The Songs of Ireland without Words), p. 12.

Recorded sources: -

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