A version of this tune can be found in The Roche Collection, but I first heard it played by Eddie Moloney from Ballinakill, County Galway. Eddie, Tommy Mulhaire, and his son Brendan were among those who travelled on a number of occasions in the 1960s…

The name Rowsome is ubiquitous in the world of Irish music. Down through the years I have had the honour of playing music with the piping master Leo Rowsome and with his children, Leon, Liam, and Helena. Fiddle player Liam Rowsome composed this tune…

I am joined on this track by my friends Kathleen Lawrie from Birmingham, England, and Kevin McElroy from Freeport, Maine. Kevin played banjo and Kathleen played piano. I first heard this tune played by musicians from Ballinakill, County Galway on an…

Jimmy Neary was a fiddle player from County Mayo who lived in Chicago. Johnny McGreevy, another fiddle player from Chicago and a hero of mine, gave me this tune in 1972 when I was on my first visit to that city, on the first ever Comhaltas…

Fiddle player, accordionist, and composer Eddie Kelly played this tune for me and asked, 'Is it any good, Séamus?' I recorded Eddie playing it in a session on the street at an All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil around 1990. The title somehow suggests…

Dr. Tomás Ó Canainn wrote this tune and recorded it with his daughter Nuala to honour and celebrate the twenty-first birthday of their musical friend Johnny McCarthy. Their recording was named Béal na Trá and was issued in 1982 on the Outlet label.…

And now to confuse things even more or, as they say at home in Ireland, 'to throw more turf on the fire', my brother Martin Connolly here plays 'Magpie in the Tree', which is yet another version of the classic jig 'Bryan O'Lynn'. Martin, a great…

'The Planting Stick' is a variant of the venerable jig 'Bryan O'Lynn', a tune I first learned from my grandmother, Elizabeth Collins (née Rochford). A number of versions of 'Bryan O'Lynn' are to be found in this collection. The tune appears in…