Annotation:Races of Ballyhooly (The)

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RACES OF BALLYHOOLY, THE (Ráisiona Bhl'-A-Hubhla). Irish, Slow Air (4/4 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AAB. "From memory, as learned in my young days. The Irish song that gave name to this fine air--of which I heard fragments in my youth--commemorated the fate of a number of peasants who were shot down in the neighbourhood of Ballyhooly near Fermoy Co. Cork, while resisting the collection of tithes, early in the last century (about 1825). The poet utters a prophecy, which has come to pass, that the particular church for which these tithes were assessed would be leveled, till not one stone remained on another. I have a copy of the whole song written in English letters phonetically; but it is such gibberish that I can make nothing of it. The first line however is plain enough:--Tá sgeul agum an innsinnt s'ná smuainim gur breug é: 'I have a tale to tell, and I don't think it is a false one'" (Joyce).

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Songs), 1909; No. 2, pp. 3-4.

Recorded sources:

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