Ballydesmond Polka: A Song History

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The “Ballydesmond Polkas” are a family of three tunes from the Sliabh Luachra region on the Cork–Kerry border, and they are usually played together as a set.[1][2] The first is in D Mixolydian and the second in A Dorian, the key in which the third is usually played, and irishtune.info records other names for them, such as “Johnny O’Leary’s,” “Maurice Manley’s” and “Tom Billy’s.”[3][4][5] The numbering is not fixed, the Traditional Tune Archive notes, because players often put another tune in front of the two Ballydesmond tunes.[2] The set shares its name with the village of Ballydesmond, which the Tune Archive says was formerly known as Kingwilliamstown and was founded as a planned village in the 1830s,[1] and a government order of May 1951 changed the Cork townland’s name from Kingwilliamstown to Ballydesmond.[6]

Color photograph of a waterfall tumbling through a wooded glen at Killarney

Torc Cascade, Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland, photochrom print, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. Library of Congress. No known restrictions on publication. A County Kerry scene shown for the region; it has no connection to the tunes.

The Tune Archive traces the third to the repertoire of Tom Billy Murphy,[2] and it was recorded in 1949 by Pádraig O’Keeffe with Denis Murphy.[5] Among his Denis Murphy materials, the collector Breandán Breathnach noted that O’Keeffe played the second tune as a polka followed by a slide adapted from it, and the Irish Traditional Music Archive adds that this slide, “Maurice Manley’s,” later became a familiar Sliabh Luachra tune independent of the polka.[7][8] Denis Murphy and his sister Julia Clifford recorded all three as “The Ballydesmond Polkas” on The Star above the Garter for Claddagh, a record that the Irish Traditional Music Archive says is credited with bringing Sliabh Luachra’s music to wider notice.[1][3][4][5][8] Its CD edition was reviewed in Musical Traditions as including “another well-known, popular set.”[9] The tunes also appear in Terry Moylan’s collection from the accordion player Johnny O’Leary.[1][3][4][5]

Later recordings of the third tune include the Chieftains’ 5 and Boys of the Lough’s Far from Home, recorded in 1984.[5] The Red Clay Ramblers recorded the first polka on Stolen Love (1975), having learned it from Denis Murphy.[1] The name is not confined to the set: the Irish Traditional Music Archive also publishes a “Ballydesmond polka” in G major from the Paddy O’Brien Tune Collection.[10] The duo Atwater-Donnelly recorded a “Ballydesmond Polka” on Culled From the Garden (1991), and Aubrey Atwater’s songbook Song By Song, Volume I includes the tune in its tin whistle section.[11][12]

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Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Ballydesmond Polka (1)".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Ballydesmond Polka (3)".
  3. irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Ballydesmond Polka" (tune #105).
  4. irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Ballydesmond Polka #2" (tune #106).
  5. irishtune.info (Alan Ng): "Ballydesmond Polka, The" (tune #107).
  6. Irish Statute Book: "S.I. No. 138/1951, Local Government (Change of Name of Townland) Order, 1951".
  7. Irish Traditional Music Archive: "Chapter Five: Denis Murphy | Breathnach Materials. Polkas".
  8. Irish Traditional Music Archive: "Chapter Four: Denis Murphy | Breathnach Materials. Slides".
  9. Musical Traditions: "Denis Murphy and Julia Clifford: The Star above the Garter" (review by Taz Tarry).
  10. Irish Traditional Music Archive: "The Ballydesmond polka" (Paddy O'Brien Tune Collection).
  11. Atwater-Donnelly: "Shop" (recordings and songbooks).
  12. Atwater-Donnelly: "Song By Song, Volume I: Table of Contents".