Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 573 (Eel in the Sink)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel16ABA Dorian
Transcription of first 2 bars of Eel in the Sink
 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 MBP (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):
Eel in the Sink, The / An Eascann sa Doirteal / The Blackthorn / The Irishman's Blackthorn / Maide Draighin an Éireannaigh / John Naughton's (also doubled; setting in G on CMcN could be considered different tune) (compare 1st part with 1st part of #2792)
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
19779#2[MBP] Matt Molloy, Paul Brady, Tommy Peoples. Matt Molloy. Paul Brady. Tommy Peoples. Matt Molloy (flute), Paul Brady (guitar, vocals), Tommy Peoples (fiddle).View album details
~199513#2[JW 1] John Williams. John Williams. John Williams (accordion, concertina).View album details
19993#2[JWh 2] John Whelan. Celtic Roots. John Whelan (accordion).View album details
19994#2[MCnnly] Mick Conneely. Selkie. Mick Conneely (fiddle, bouzouki).View album details
~20079#1[CMcN] Christy McNamara. The House I Was Reared In. Christy McNamara (accordion, concertina, vocals).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 #244 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As tune #33 in volume 4 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
As reel #32 in [MM] Martin Mulvihill. First Collection of Traditional Irish Music.
As reel #379 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As tune #125 in [FT] Randy Miller. The Fiddler's Throne. [available]
As tune #86 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): 1966
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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