Lilting Banshee: A Song History
"The Lilting Banshee" is an Irish double jig in A minor or Dorian, played in the usual two repeated strains.[1] Britannica describes the banshee (Irish bean sidhe, "woman of the fairies") as a spirit of Celtic folklore; to hear her wail in the night was taken as warning of an approaching death among one's own kin.[2] The tune has collected many other names over the years, among them "Ballinasloe Fair," "The Killaloe Boat," "Lay Her Down Easy," "Ryan's Favourite," "John Conroy's," and "The Whistling Banshee."[1][3]
Adriaen van Ostade, The Dance at the Inn, etching, 1652. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its subject; it has no connection to the tune.
The earliest printing in the sources consulted here is in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1903), where it appears as "The Miller of Glanmire," and O'Neill reprinted it in his 1907 Dance Music of Ireland.[4][3] In Irish Folk Music: A Fascinating Hobby (1910), O'Neill wrote that he got the tune from George West, a gifted seventeen-year-old fiddler who did not own a fiddle.[4] A nearly identical copy also survives in the Dunn family manuscript collection.[4]
The jig appeared in Bulmer & Sharpley's Music from Ireland (1974), in a setting from Paddy McNicholas, and later in session collections such as Mallinson's 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes.[1][3] The earliest recording listed by irishtune.info is by fiddler John Vesey in 1958, with later versions by Jack and Charlie Coen, The Chieftains, and others.[3] The Castle Céilí Band always played it after "The Killavil Jig," and James Keane, an accordionist and founding member of that band, later recorded it himself.[1]
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