This tune has been adapted from another tune of mine, the reel Maisie Friel’s, in the way in which many Irish melodies are used to create different song, jig, reel, hornpipe and march tempos, which, with necessary timing and melody adjustments make for a new tune. Some jigs fit a reel mould well, but most don’t, and quite a lot of re-arrangement can be required, as in the case of this one. The original tune was heralded at the Forkhill Singers’ weekend in 1995, played for one of its organisers Gerry O’Hanlon, the last part eliciting an explosive, critical utterance from Ciaran Carson … It was then worked on in 2016 in the tranquility of a 12th-century crypt church under Chateau L’Anglais in Puisseguin, St. Emilion, France in the company of a reclining giant steel and copper skeletal sculpture created by artist Patricia Molins. The jig version here is the result of worrying it again during the 2021 lockdown months, aided by five dozen Puisseguin St. Emilion reds couriered over by wine-maker Gérard Dupuy, owner of the said chateau …
