Annotation:Tullamore Harbour
X: 1 T:Tullamore Harbour C:? John Brady F:file ID mvbt2/064tull_h D:"New Broom" (Mike Rafferty - Willie Kelly 2009) Z:bill@capeirish.com Q:160 M:6/8 L:1/8 R:jig K:G D|G2B dBG|gaf gdB|g2d edB|edB AFD| G2B dBG|gaf gdB|DFA dcA|GAF G2 :| D|GBd gfg|dgb gdB|ecA BAG|FAF DEF| GBd gfg|dgb gdB|DFA dcA|AGF G2 :|
TULLAMORE HARBOUR. Irish, Jig (6/8 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody has been attributed to Irish fiddler Dan Cleary (1918-2004), of Ballinamere, County Offaly, and independently to John Brady of Co. Offaly. Cleary played a number of instruments, including the uilleann pipes, piano and tin whistle, and was a member of a number of céili bands in the mid-20th century, notably the Ballinamere Céili Band, which won All-Ireland titles in the mid-1950’s. Like “Trip to Durrow”, another of Cleary’s compositions, this tune may stem from Cleary’s days as a young man with the Colmcille Céili Band, of Durrow, Co. Offaly, who played regularly in the Forresters Hall in Tullamore (see Treoir, vol. 38, No. 2, 2006, pp. 37-38). John Brady was a flute player and a member of the Longridge Ceili Band.
The 'harbour' referred to in the title is a canal harbor, as County Offally is landlocked with Tullamore almost at the center of of Ireland. In the mid-20th centurycommercial traffic on the Grand Canal was at its height as barges brought Guinness to Limerick and turf to Dublin. However, in the following decades the harbor became the central depot for the maintenance and repair of the waterways network in the Midlands and became industrialized. The town of Tullamore presently has embarked on a plan to reclaim recreational access to the waterway and to oversee development of the resource.
