The Wild Geese refers to the tens of thousands of exiled soldiers and their families who were forced to leave Ireland after losing the late 17th-century war between James II of England and William of Orange that spilled over into Ireland. This iconic lament form the 1690s—also known as 'Ireland’s Lamentation’—is still played today but the melody is usually that of a recomposed 19th-century piano-arrangement setting. In this session, we will learn a much better, but little-known, setting captured in the 1790s from live performance by the Armagh harper, Patrick Quin.

Part 2 of a two-part session