Untitled (related to Rory O’More), jig

Séamus Ennis first heard of Colm Ó Caodháin in late August 1942 when he was recommended to Ennis as a good singer from Glinsce, north of Carna. In December of that year on a return visit to Conamara he made an effort to meet with Colm Ó Caodháin but bad weather forced him to abandon the visit. It was to be 25 May 1943 before Séamus Ennis would meet Colm and discover that he had ‘a vast store of tunes and songs’ including this jig.  This first part of this tune is closely related to the first part of ‘Rory O’Moore’ as recorded by Mary Ellen Conlon in New York in 1923 on the Gennet label. Mary Ellen, from Milltown in North Galway, was a sister of P.J. Conlon, one of the first Irish-born melodeon players to record commercially in America. ‘Rory O’Moore’ was composed by Dublin native Samuel Lover as part of a comic opera in 1837. It was published as a jig in Ryan’s Mammoth Collection (p. 120) and in O’Neill’s Dance Music of Ireland (No. 116).