Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID#3498 (Billy O'Rourke Is the Boy)
about these two barsThese two bars were transcribed by me from how this tune was played – the first time through – on the recording BgCn (details in the Discography below).
| Rhythm ? | Bars | 8-bar phrase structure | Mode ? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slide | 32 | AABB | A Major |
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; 3rd in set Tá mo Mhadra a.k.a. Tá Mo Madra on BgCn, which includes sung text) (also singled, also in G)
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). |
|---|---|---|
| ~1933 | 11#2 (0:55) | [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). |
| ~1992 | 11#3 | [BgCn] Séamus Begley and Stephen Cooney. Meitheal. Séamus Begley (accordion, vocals), Stephen Cooney (guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion, ditjeridú). |
| 2000 | 18#7 (6:00) | [ACB 1] The Abbey Céilí Band. Bruach an tSuláin. Ger Murphy (accordion), Andrew O'Connell (fiddle), Liam Forde (banjo), Micheál Creedon (bass, keyboards). |
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.
| As tune #987 in [1001] Francis O'Neill and James O'Neill. The Dance Music of Ireland. 1001 Gems. |
| 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. |
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