Annotation:Glenswilly

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GLENSWILLY. Irish, Slow Air (3/4 time). G Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. There was a famous battle at Glenswilly, County Donegal on June 21, 1650, when the native Irish forces under Heber McMahon, the Bishop of Clogher, were defeated and routed by a Cromwellian army. A song called "The Hills of Glenswilly" was in the repertoire of singer Joe Heaney, written by Donegal native Michael (Mick) McGinley (1852-1940) while he was on an emigration ship for New Zealand in 1878. It begins:

‘Twas on a summer’s morning by the dawning of the day
I left my peaceful residence to wander far away
And as I left, those lovely hills perhaps no more to see
I surely thought my heart would break when leaving Glenswilly.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Ó Canainn (Traditional Slow Airs of Ireland), 1995; No. 84, p. 73.

Recorded sources:

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