Tommy Mulhair's: A Song History

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Tommy Mulhair's, also spelled Mulhaire's, is an Irish jig in 6/8 time associated with the Mulhaire family of Eyrecourt, County Galway.[1] Accounts of its authorship differ: New York accordionist Jim Coogan credited it to button accordion player Martin Mulhaire, who named it for his father Tommy, while fiddler Seamus Connolly held that Tommy made it himself while living near Eyrecourt and had it going around by about 1958.[1] Tommy, who played several instruments and led a band, was the musical mentor of his son Martin, who grew up in Eyrecourt.[2]

A dark wooden transverse flute with ivory rings and a single brass key, lying diagonally on a white background

British maker, Flute in D, wood, ivory and brass, London, ca. 1821. A wooden flute made in London about 1821, shown for the flute, on which Joanie Madden is among those who have recorded the jig; the flute has no connection to the tune.

The jig has gathered a crowd of other names, among them Carolan's Fancy and O'Connell's Welcome to Parliament.[1] It is also sometimes called Castletown Conners, a title that properly belongs to a different jig; the Traditional Tune Archive traces the mix-up to a well-known recording that paired the two in one medley.[1] Even its key is reported differently, with the Traditional Tune Archive giving G major and irishtune.info giving E minor.[1][3] Printed settings appear in Breandán Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2 and Martin Mulvihill's First Collection of Traditional Irish Music, and later in Connolly and Martin's Forget Me Not (2002).[3][1] Fiddler Kevin Burke recorded it on Up Close in 1984, and irishtune.info lists versions by accordionist P.J. Hernon, flute player Joanie Madden, Josephine Marsh and the Ó Raghallaigh family, among others.[1][3]

Aaron O'Rourke sets it in DAD tuning in Irish Session Tunes, Volume 2, a Fingers Of Steel collection of session jigs, reels and polkas for mountain dulcimer with fast and slow demonstration tracks, and the same book also includes Castletown Conners.[4]

Our book that contains the song "Tommy Mulhair's"

Sources

  1. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Tommy Mulhaire's Jig".
  2. Irish Traditional Music Archive: "From The Bridge: Martin Mulhaire".
  3. irishtune.info: "Tommy Mulhaire's".
  4. Fingers Of Steel: "Aaron O'Rourke, Irish Session Tunes, Volume 2".
  5. Image: British maker, Flute in D, wood, ivory and brass, London, ca. 1821. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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