Annotation:Margaret Sheehan

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X:1 T:Margaret Sheehan M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Very Slow" S:O'Neill - Music of Ireland (1903), No. 61 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:G z2 B2A2 | G4E2 | D4E2 | G6 | G4B2 | d4B2 | G4B2 | d6 | d4 e2 | d4 B2 | B2 {c/B/}A2G2 | A6 | A4 B2 | c4A2 | B4 G2 | E6 | G4A2 | B4d2 | d4e2 | d6 | g4e2 | d4B2 | B2 {c/B/}A2G2 | A4c2 | B4A2 | G4E2 | D4E2 | G4A2 | B4G2 | A4B2 | G4 G2 | G6 ||



MARGARET SHEEHAN. AKA - "Mairgread Ni Seadacain." AKA and see "My Darling Colleen Fune." Irish, Air (3/4 time, "very slow"). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. O'Neill (1913) points out that, while the melody is regular in composition, there is no repetition of strains. In his book Irish Folk Music; A Fascinating Hobby (1910), O'Neill states:

There was an industrious weaver and poetaster in Bantry named John Sullivan in the [eighteen] sixties whose prolific muse was never at a loss for a themes. Margaret Sheehan, a likely young girl, who attracted his fancy, was done into verse as follows, attuned to a local melody, which my memory preserved:

M-a was placed the first, with an r before the rest,
G-a-r is the next, and e-t has it proved;
S-h then follows after, with double e in right good order,
And h-a-n is the latter of my Darling Colleen Fune.

Johnny Sullivan, "the poet", as he was best known, has long since ceased to sing, and what is worse, was remembered by only a few of the oldest inhabitants when I visited Bantry in 1906. Such is fame. ... [1] [pp. 71-72].

"'Colleen Fune'", explains Fr. John Quinn, "Anglicisation of “cailín fionn”, i. e., fair maid," and Fr. Quinn finds O'Neill's "My Darling Fair Maid" to be a setting of the "Margaret Sheehan" air in common time[1].


Additional notes



Printed sources : - O'Neill (Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies), 1903; No. 61, p. 11. O'Neill (Irish Minstrels and Musicians), 1913; p. 115.






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  1. Personal email communication 6.29.2021.