Cliffs Of Moher: A Song History
"The Cliffs of Moher" is an Irish double jig; the Traditional Tune Archive gives its Irish title as "Aillte Motair Ua Ruadain" and notes that it is usually played in A Dorian.[1] Irishtune.info also lists it as a 32-bar jig in A Dorian, and notes versions in D or G as well.[2] The tune shares its name with the County Clare sea cliffs, which according to the Archive were named for Mothar, an old promontory fort knocked down during the Napoleonic Wars to make way for a signal tower.[1]
[Cliffs at Moher. County Claire (i.e. Clare), Ireland], photochrom, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. The cliffs of the title; the picture has no connection to the tune.
The earliest printing the Archive lists is in Levey's The Dance Music of Ireland, second collection, of 1873, where the tune is set in A major.[1] Francis O'Neill printed it in G major in O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903) and included it again in The Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907), having learned it from Patrick "Big Pat" O'Mahony, a flute player from West Clare who served as a patrolman in the Chicago police.[1][3] Sources differ on how to classify O'Neill's setting: the Archive lists it under this tune while noting that it is quite far from the common modern version, whereas irishtune.info indexes O'Neill's G-major tune as a separate "Cliffs of Moher" from the familiar A Dorian jig.[1][3]
Kevin Burke recorded it on his 1978 album If the Cap Fits.[1][2] Mark Gilston includes the jig in Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1, the first book of a two-volume sheet-music collection of Irish tunes, published by Mark Gilston.[4]
Sources
- The Traditional Tune Archive: "Cliffs of Moher (The)".
- irishtune.info: "Cliffs of Moher" (tune #338).
- irishtune.info: "Cliffs of Moher" (tune #6970).
- Mark Gilston: "Irish Tunes For Dulcimer, Volume 1".
- Image: [Cliffs at Moher. County Claire (i.e. Clare), Ireland], photochrom, between ca. 1890 and ca. 1900. Library of Congress.