Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 3498 (Billy O'Rourke Is the Boy)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Slide32AABBA Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Billy O'Rourke Is the Boy
 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 BC (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):
Billy O'Rourke Is the Boy / Billy O'Rourke's the Buachaill / Beidh Ríl Againn Árainn / Beidh Ríl againn / An Bóthar ó Thuaidh go dtí Árainn / Ta Mo Mhadra / Poor Nancy Died / Day I Married Susan / The Night I Married Susie / Fair of Windgap / Paddy's Experience / Roudlum Randy / Saint Patrick was a Gentleman (2nd in set Just Like Home on FBros; 2nd in set Tá Mo Mhadra on BC, which includes sung text) (also singled, also in G)
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
~193311(0:55)#2[FBros] The Flanagan Brothers. The Tunes We Like to Play on Paddy's Day. Joe Flanagan (accordion), Louis Flanagan (guitar, banjo), Mike Flanagan (banjo, vocals, mandolin).View album details
~199211#3[BC] Séamus Begley and Stephen Cooney. Meitheal. Séamus Begley (accordion, vocals), Stephen Cooney (guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, ditjeridú).View album details
200018(6:00)#7[ACB 1] The Abbey Céilí Band. Bruach an tSuláin. Ger Murphy (accordion), Andrew O'Connell (fiddle), Liam Forde (banjo), Micheál Creedon (bass, keyboards).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 #987 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. [available]
As tune #65 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As tune #290 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): 1907
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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