Annotation:Saitheadh a' bháid

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SAITHEADH A' BHÁID (The Launching of the Boat). Irish, Reel. Ireland, County Donegal. D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Caoimhin Mac Aoidh (1994) lists this as one of the droning Donegal tunes (from fiddler Francie Dearg (‘red-haired’) O’Byrne of Cashel, Kilcar, who composed it) played with long bowed double stops, reminiscent of piping. Mac Aoidh records O’Byrne’s story that at one time all the fishing boats in the Kilcar area were made at a carpenter’s house on a mountainside in the townland of Churchtown. It was the local ritual that, once completed the boat would be shoulder by the local men of the parish and carried down to the quay for its first sea-trial. Before being hoisted, however, a keg of poitin was placed in the middle of the boat and a fiddler would sit upon it. The men then carried boat, keg and fiddler all the way down to the sea, where the boat was given a trial which, if successful, was followed by a quayside dance accompanied by the fiddler and the poitin.

Additional notes

Source for notated version: - Source for notated version: Altan [Taylor/Tweed].

Printed sources : - Taylor (Traditional Irish Music: Karen Tweed’s Irish Choice), 1994; p. 20.

Recorded sources: - Dervish – “Live in Palma” (appears in “Drag Her Round the Boat” set). Paul O'Shaughnessy and Paul McGrattan – “Within a Mile of Dublin."

See also listing at:
Alan Ng's Irishtune.info [1]