Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#1031 (Killarney Boys of Pleasure)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording SK 1 (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reel | 32 | AABB | E Dorian |
Killarney Boys of Pleasure, The / Doherty's Reel / Doherty's / Johnny Doherty's Reel / Docherty's Reel / O'Doherty's / Doherty / Gweebarra Bridge / The Gweebarra Bridge Reel / The Gwebarra Bridge Reel / Ril a' Sean Nós (also in D) (compare Clan Ranald #331 and Sweat House #4948)
Discography
Here are all recordings of this tune considering only the indexed recordings. I have discovered by careful listening that these sources are in fact musically the same tune, regardless of the tune titles they use, key changes, retuning, etc.
Click 
to hear the first 12 seconds.
to hear the first 12 seconds.| Year Recorded |
Track #Tune? |
[Album code] Artist. Title. Performers (instruments). |
|---|---|---|
| ~1975 | 15#1 | [SK 1] Seán Keane. Gusty's Frolicks. Seán Keane (fiddle). |
| ~1978 | 8#2 | [LC 1] Liz Carroll. A Friend Indeed. Liz Carroll (fiddle). |
| ~1991 | 1#1 (0:53) | [THayes] Tommy Hayes. An Rás. Tommy Hayes (bodhrán, percussion). For this tune: 1st time Kieran Hanrahan (mandolin), then with Alisdair Fraser (fiddle). |
| ~1996 | 12#2 | [SBw] Folan and Davey. Skin and Bow. Declan Folan (fiddle), Junior Davey (bodhrán). |
| ~1998 | 11#1 | [MMR 2] Mike and Mary Rafferty. The Old Fireside Music. Mike Rafferty (flute, pipes), Mary Rafferty (accordion, whistle). For this tune: Mary (whistle). |
| 2001 | 13#2 | [A BI] Altan. Blue Idol. Not identified in liner notes. [Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh (fiddle, vocals), Ciaran Tourish (fiddle, whistle), Dermot Byrne (accordion), Ciaran Curran (bouzouki), Mark Kelly (guitar), Dáithi Sproule (guitar)]. |
| ~2001 | 3#1 | [Lu 3] Lúnasa. The Merry Sisters of Fate. Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle), Seán Smyth (fiddle, whistle), Cillian Vallely (pipes, whistle), Donogh Hennessy (guitar, whistle), Trevor Hutchinson (double bass). For this tune: 1st time Seán Smyth (fiddle). |
| ~2001 | 5#1 | [Lu 7] Lúnasa. The Story So Far .... Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhran), Sean Smyth (fiddle, whistle), Cillian Vallely (pipes, whistle), Mike McGoldrick (flute, pipes), John McSherry (pipes), Donogh Hennessy (guitar), Trevor Hutchinson (double bass, cello), Paul Meehan (guitar). For this tune: 1st time Seán Smyth (fiddle). |
| 2011 | 6#3 | [HDvls 2] The House Devils. Crossing the Ocean. Matt Fahey (vocals, guitar, bouzouki, resonator guitar), Mat Walklate (harmonica, flute, vocals, whistle, pipes), Andrew Dinan (fiddle), Anthony Haller (double bass). |
Bibliography
Here are all transcriptions of this tune considering only the indexed books, listed in chronological order. I have discovered by careful comparison that these are very similar to this tune as played on the recordings listed above.
| On page 80 of [RM] Randy Miller and Jack Perron. Irish Traditional Fiddle Music. |
| As tune #40 in volume 1 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols. |
| On page 158 of [FF] David Brody. The Fiddler's Fakebook. |
| As tune #65 in [DM 1] Dave Mallinson. 100 Essential Irish Session Tunes. |
| As tune #83 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. |
If you are considering using the above transcriptions to help you learn this tune, I invite you to check these practical Tips for Learning Irish Traditional Music. See also: So why do you bother indexing books and abc?
Year of the oldest source for this tune, considering the recordings and transcriptions listed above (note that I concentrate on sources after 1900): 1973