Event Overview

The melody of this lively, well-known harp song, in jig form, was composed for Counsellor John O’Connor in co. Offaly, in the Irish midlands. It is, however, rarely heard in its original harp setting, including Carolan’s exciting ‘back and forth’ of melodic motifs answering each other, between his upper and lower hands. Come explore an ‘as-close-as-we-can-get’ version of this lively Carolan planxty – captured over 220 years ago – looking at manuscript and early printed sources, and getting our fingers dancing a jig on the strings!

Materials provided in advance: source facsimile; an edited instrumental reconstruction with fingering + string-damping indications; a sound file.