Annotation:Races of Granard (The)
X:1
T:Races of Granard, The
M:C
L:1/8
R:Reel
B:Stephen Grier music manuscript collection (Book 2, c. 1883, No. 149, p. 32)
B: http://grier.itma.ie/book-two#?c=0&m=0&s=0&cv=31&z=-759.8197%2C183.8508%2C4495.7388%2C2304.1667
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:A
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RACES OF GRANARD, THE. AKA and see "Moorish Donnivan's Reel," "New Scotch Dance," "Sandy Banks of Rush (The)." This Irish(?) reel appears in Book 2 of the large c. 1883 music manuscript collection of County Leitrim piper and fiddler biography:Stephen Grier. County Longford is the location of the town of Granard, a name that was supposed by the learned Dr. O’Connor to be derived from the two Celtic words, Grain, the sun, and ard, a high place or hill; so that the meaning would seem to be "the Hill of the Sun." A convocation of ancient harpers was held at Granard in 1781, also held in 1782 and 1785 and was a fertile collection ground for Belfast musician and antiquarian Edward Bunting. The Granard harp festival was revived in 1981 and has continued. Annual horse races were held at Granard at least since the mid-18th century.
Conor Ward finds a cognate version of the tune as "Sandy Banks of Rush (The)" in the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork cleric and uilleann piper biography:James Goodman (1828─1896), and also with another cognate (and perhaps the precursor to the family), "Moorish Donnivan's Reel." Another variant, under the title "New Scotch Dance", is contained in the large mid-19th century music manuscript collection of Manchester, England, musician John Roose.
