Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 1442 (O'Donnell Abu)

RhythmBarsMode
March24D Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of O'Donnell Abu
 about these two bars

These two bars are the start of my transcription of how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording JDJO (details in the Discography below).

Where do you get the tune titles?
Titles given to this tune in the sources listed below (plus notes of mine about this tune):
O'Donnell Abu / O'Donnell Abú / O'Donnell Aboo / O' Donnell Aboo / Our Land Shall Be Free (also in G, also with both or no parts repeated, also as 7th figure for The Bridge of Athlone, also as song-air) (compare Scotland the Brave #2737)
What do the "track#tune" codes mean?

cd 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. They are listed in order of when they were recorded.

Year
Recorded
Track
#Tune
[Album code] Artist. Title. Primary musicians (instruments). Album details
and contents
~195313#1[JDJO] Joe Derrane and Jerry O'Brien. Irish Accordion Masters. Joe Derrane (accordion), Jerry O'Brien (accordion).View album details
~195713#1[KR] Kevin Rowsome. The Rowsome Tradition. Kevin Rowsome (pipes).View album details

Bibliography

Here are all transcriptions of this tune under any title whatsoever – 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.

As tune #259 in [1850] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. O'Neill's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #331 in volume 2 of [R] Francis Roche. The Roche Collection of Traditional Irish Music. 3 vols. [available]
As tune #121#7 in [A] Hugh McDermott. Allan's "Irish Fiddler." [available]
As march #10 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
As misc #3 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]

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): 1903