Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 2540 (Woods of Old Limerick)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Double jig32AABBD Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Woods of Old Limerick
 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 JOL 1 (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):
Woods of Old Limerick, The / Coillte SheanLuimnhigh / Ellen O'Leary's / Ellen Leary's (mislabeled on MRaf as Story about My Father's Uilleann Pipes) (also in G, also in D Mixolydian, also with 2nd part as intro)
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
197718#1[JOL 1] Johnny O'Leary. Music for the Set. Traditional Irish Music from Sliabh Luachra. Johnny O'Leary (accordion).View album details
~19903#2[PS 3] Patrick Street. Irish Times. Kevin Burke (fiddle), Andy Irvine (vocals, harmonica, mandolin, bouzouki), Gerry O'Beirne (vocals, guitar), James Kelly (fiddle), Declan Masterson (pipes, whistle, keyboards), Jackie Daly (accordion), Arty McGlynn (guitar), Bill Whelan (keyboards).View album details
~1996A.4#1[MISD 6] Donncha Lynch Trio. The Magic of Irish Set Dancing. Vol. 6. Donncha Lynch (accordion), Aogán Lynch (concertina), Donncha Lynch Jr. (guitar).View album details
~19981#3[MvC 2] Moving Cloud. Foxglove. Paul Brock (accordion), Maeve Donnelly (fiddle), Manus McGuire (fiddle), Kevin Crawford (flute, whistle, bodhrán), Carl Hession (piano).View album details
200015#1[NR] Charlie Piggott and Gerry Harrington. The New Road. Charlie Piggott (accordion), Gerry Harrington (fiddle).View album details
20024#3[BBg 2] Brendan Begley. It Could Be a Good Night Yet! Oíche go Maidean. Breanndán Ó Beaglaoich/Brendan Begley (accordion, vocals).View album details
~200418#2[MRaf] Mike Rafferty. Speed 78. Mike Rafferty (flute, 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 #99 in [JOL] Terry Moylan. Johnny O'Leary of Sliabh Luachra. Dance Music from the Cork-Kerry Border. [available]
As jig #228 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [available]
As jig #349 in [HN] Henrik Norbeck. Henrik Norbeck's Abc Tunes. [available]
As tune #224 in [Raff] Lesl Harker. 300 Tunes from Mike Rafferty. [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): 1977
Please cite your source when you use information from this document.
© 2000–2008 Alan Ng, agng@facstaff.wisc.edu. Questions? Comments? Please use the easy Feedback Form. Thank you!
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