Irish Traditional Music Tune Index
Tune ID# 866 (Shores of Loughrea)

RhythmBars8-bar phrase structureMode
Reel16ABG Major
Transcription of first 2 bars of Shores of Loughrea
 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 PCt (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):
Shores of Loughrea / The Shores of Lough Rea / The Shores of Lough Ree / The Shores of Lough Reagh / Humours of Loughrea / Tommy Whelan's / Whelan's Reel / Burke's Choice (2nd in set The Congress on FG 1; 2nd in set The Laurel Tree on BB 2; this set in turn was mislabeled on some reissues as Michael Gorman's) (also doubled)
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
~19756#2[PCt] Paddy Carty. Traditional Irish Music. Paddy Carty (flute).View album details
197612#2[BB 2] The Bothy Band. Old Hag You Have Killed Me. Paddy Keenan (pipes, whistle), Matt Molloy (flute, whistle), Kevin Burke (fiddle), Tríona Ní Dhomhnaill (vocals, clavinet, harmonium), Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (vocals, guitar), Donal Lunny (vocals, bouzouki, guitar, bodhrán).View album details
197613#1[JCC] Jack and Charlie Coen. The Branch Line. Jack Coen (flute), Charlie Coen (concertina).View album details
~197711#2[FG 1] Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn. Frankie Gavin and Alec Finn. Frankie Gavin (fiddle, whistle), Alec Finn (bouzouki).View album details
~19955#2[MMR 1] Mike and Mary Rafferty. The Dangerous Reel. Mike Rafferty (flute, whistle, pipes), Mary Rafferty (accordion, flute, whistle).View album details
~199610#2[SN 1] Sliabh Notes. Sliabh Notes. Dónal Murphy (accordion), Matt Cranitch (fiddle), Tommy O'Sullivan (guitar, vocals).View album details
~20032.22#2[WFO 2] various. Wooden Flute Obsession 2. 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 #197 in [CRE 2] Breandán Breathnach. Ceol Rince na hÉireann 2.
As tune #14 in volume 3 of [B&S] D[avid] Bulmer and N[eil] Sharpley. Music from Ireland. 4 vols.
On page 28 of [T] Fintan Vallely. Timber. The Flute Tutor. 2nd Edition. [available]
As reel #334 in [Cobb] Dan Cobb. Cobb's Music of Ireland. [available]
As reel #45 in [JKg 3] Josephine Keegan. A Drop in the Ocean. Traditional Irish Tunes Collected by Josephine Keegan. [available]
As tune #43 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): 1960
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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