Annotation:O'Reilly of Athcarne

Find traditional instrumental music



X:1 T:O'Reilly of Ath Can T:Ua Raghallaigh Atha Carna S:Edward O'Reilly (Dublin) B:The Dublin Magazine, May, 1842 Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion M:C| L:1/8 R:Air K:Gmin GF|DGGA B2 BB|cBcd f2 (3d=e^f|g>^fg>d d3c|B2 AG GFD=E| F4 z2 G>F|DGGA B2 BB|c>Bc>d f3d|g>fg>d c2 dc|A2 Bc B4|| f>df>g f>df>g|f>gf>d c2 c>c|dcdf gfga|gagf d3d| 2 GBAG|Gd2 dc B2B2|B2cB A2A2|B2 A2 GBAG|GFD=E TF2 GF| DGGA B2 B>B|c>Bc>d Tf2 (3d=e^f|g>^fg>d c2 dc|TA2 GA G4||



O'REILLY OF ATHCARNE (Ua Raghallaigh Atha Carna). AKA - "O'Reilly of Athcarn." Irish, Air or Planxty (cut time). G Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. Composed by Turlough O'Carolan. The tune is contained in the music manuscript collection of mid-19th century cleric Rev. biography:James Goodman of County Cork, an uilleann piper and collector. The tune is attributed to Carolan by Dublin dentist and collector biography:Henry Hudson, on the strength of the assertion by Edward O'Reilly in The Dublin Magazine (May, 1842). The opening bars are reminiscent of the folk-song "Cruiskeen Lawn." Words to the tune are attributed by O'Reilly to Uilliam Ó Ciaráin (William Kearns), a poet from County Meath, and a younger contemporary of the harper's, written in honor of O'Reilly of Oristown, near Kells, County Meath. See also "John O'Reilly (1)" and "John O'Reilly (2)" for more Carolan compositions for the family.

Hudson[1] opines:

Our "scientific" readers will see that we are in a peculiar strain of luck for violating the rules of harmony in this number; for, in the seventh and eighth bars of the second part, they will find as hair-breadth an escape from consecutive fifths in the accompaniment as ever they met in their lives; if not the very things themselves.

Fleischmann et al note that the song "Sé monuair nach bhfuilim tréightheaach" is sung to this air.


Additional notes



Printed sources : - Complete Collection of Carolan's Irish Tunes, 1984; No. 138, p. 97. The Dublin Magazine, May, 1842. O'Sullivan (Carolan: The Life, Times, and Music of an Irish Harper), 1958; No. 138, p. 175.






Back to O'Reilly of Athcarne

0.00
(0 votes)




  1. The Dublin Magazine, May, 1842, p. 48.