I have a tape of a wonderful evening of music in the home of the Gavin family of Balbriggan, County Dublin, which includes this hornpipe played by Jimmy Keane from Chicago. I wanted to include the tune in this collection, so I phoned Jimmy to ask about its origins. He said the tune wasn't his composition, so after some thought I phoned Brian O'Kane (a member of the All-Ireland Champion Siamsa Céilí Band in the 1960s) in Dublin to ask if he knew anything about the tune. He informed me that he indeed had written it himself, but had no name for it. Looking back now, it seems that I had made an association between the names Keane and O'Kane, and their styles of playing, which happily led me to the identity of the actual composer of this fine hornpipe. Thanks for the tune, Brian, and thanks to Gráinne Murphy for learning and playing it here for us.

Séamus Connolly

Boston College Libraries

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