Devaney's Goat: A Song History
"Devaney's Goat" is an Irish reel in D, a 32-bar tune in the usual two repeated parts, also spelled "Devanney's" or "Devanny's" and known in Irish as "Gabhar an Dubhánaigh."[1] The Bronx flute player Jack Coen credited it to Tommy Whelan, a flute player from around Woodford in east Galway who played with the old Ballinakill Céilí Band.[2] As the story behind the title goes, Whelan thought up the tune while a goat belonging to his neighbour Devaney was raiding his vegetable patch.[2] The reel is also closely linked with the Ballinakill musician Eddie Moloney.[2]
Karel Dujardin, Four goats; at the back a nanny goat lies on the ground, in the middle a billy goat stands, in the front two kids lie on the ground, a fence and tree beyond, etching, ca. 1641–78. Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.
Eddie Moloney's own recording, dated to about 1974, is one of the two earliest in irishtune.info's index of recordings.[1] Breandán Breathnach printed it as No. 267 in the second volume of Ceol Rince na hÉireann (1976), from the playing of fiddler Paddy Ryan, and it had appeared a year earlier in McGuire and Keegan's Irish Tunes by the 100.[2] Frankie Gavin opened "Eddie Moloney's Set" with it on Croch Suas É (1983), and later recordings include Noel Hill's The Irish Concertina, Cherish the Ladies' At Home and Patrick Street's Cornerboys (1996), where Kevin Burke's fiddle takes the first time through.[1][2][3] Céilí bands, among them the Tulla and the Glenside, have recorded it as well, and the index lists some two dozen recordings running into the 2020s.[1]
Aaron O'Rourke includes it in Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1, a collection of 36 session jigs, reels and polkas arranged for mountain dulcimer in DAD tuning, published by Fingers Of Steel.[4]
Sources
- irishtune.info: "Devaney's Goat".
- Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Devanney's Goat".
- irishtune.info: "Patrick Street, Cornerboys".
- Fingers Of Steel: "Aaron O'Rourke, Irish Session Tunes, Volume 1".
- Image: Karel Dujardin, Four goats; at the back a nanny goat lies on the ground, in the middle a billy goat stands, in the front two kids lie on the ground, a fence and tree beyond, etching, ca. 1641–78. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.