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Annotation:Reel with the Beryle (The)
X:1 T:Reel with the Beryle, The S:Chieftains, from Mrs. Crotty Z:Jerome Colburn N:The Kilrush version of the tune, represented by Michael Tubridy, N:Martin Hayes, and Mrs. Crotty M:C| L:1/8 K:EDor E2 BE dEBE | E2 BE AFDF | E2 BE dEBE | ~d3 B AFDF | E2 BE dEBE | E2 BE AFDF | E2 BE dEBE | d3 B A4 || BABd e2 de | fdde d2 ef | g3 f g2 eg | fa~a2 afed | dbba bafe | faab afed | B2 dB BAFA | ~dedB AFDF ||**
REEL WITH THE BERYLE, THE. AKA - “Reel with the Burl/Birl.” AKA and see "Ladies Bonnet," "Lady's Bonnet (The)," “Tom Clair's Maggie.” Irish, Reel. Ireland, County Clare. E Dorian. Standard tuning (fiddle). The title was the one used by the source for the reel, publican and concertina player Mrs. Elizabeth Crotty (1885-1960), of Kilrush, Clare (Michael Tubridy’s aunt), a favorite tune of hers and recorded from her playing between 1955 and 1960 by Ciarán MacMathúna and Ned Nugent with the Radió Éireann Mobile Recoding Unit. The Crotty family had a pub in the south Clare town, where great sessions were to be heard. The word ‘burl’ or ‘birl’ is a pipers term to describe a musical ornament (a hard triplet on the low ‘A’ note of the Highland pipes, and a feature of the instrument), but it also can mean to play rousingly as in “give it some birl” or “give it some life!” The tune is related to “Drowsy Maggie” (the first parts are very similar), the Scots “Sleepy Maggie” and probably to “Toss the Feathers.” O’Neill published it as “Tom Clair's Maggie,” thought to be a shorthand title for his source and a reference to its similarity to “Drowsy Maggie.”
