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Audio recording of Donncha O'Brien playing at the 1989 Flute & Whistle Recital at the Willie Clancy Summer School - 2 jigs and 2 reels.
Help needed in providing a name for the first jig, please >
https://youtu.be/ofpC8jyybE4

A few weeks ago I learned three jigs off a clip of the O'Raghallaigh family playing a set of tunes starting with The Humours of Castlelyons and ending with Brendan Tonra's composition Josie's Visit that was among the RTE flute clips I sent you a while ago. This one was in the middle of it and it was the only one I couldn't eventually identify.

This is my initial scribble of their version (I write things I learn in a littel black book these days to remember I learned them):




It's obviously a version of the Blackthorn stick/Maid at the well and digging a bit further while writing this I just realised it is the wonderfully titled 'The Black Stripper' from the Goodman collection that also appears as 'The Milkmaid' in the North Kerry collection 'Drawing water from the well'.

A 'Black Stripper' is a breed of cattle, by the way (it was slightly disappointing to find that).

Lovely clip again.

Many thanks for identifying that jig, Mr. G. "The Maid At The Well" is probably less likely to suffer from mis-interpretation.
Regards, Kenny

"The Maid At The Well" is probably less likely to suffer from mis-interpretation.

Yes but I would associate that with a different variant (see CRE1, 13 nd DMI 24), the one Tommy Reck had. A close relation, obviously, but different enough to be separate. And as I play both versions, I'd like to distinguish between them, if only for myself.

There's a nice flow to the version I learned off the O'Raghallaighs, which is very close to DOB's take, especially the second part.

It was Paul de Grae who gave me the bovine reference, when I mused about the unlikeliness of the title, when considering it in the light of Goodman's time and place. Rather than a breed of cow, as I said above, a "stripper" is a cow at the end of her lactation, giving little milk.


Here is Goodman's take, slightly different from the version played in the clip.

Perhaps 'The Milkmaid' as per the North Kerry version is a good compromise?

Prompted by a thread about Johnny Henry on the Irish Music forum next door, I looked up JH's entry in The Trip to Sligo and found the jig discussed here, once again, named as 'The Silver Tip'. Probably just adding more confusion about the name, but there you have it.

Thanks Peter. You've cleared up one mystery for me. I knew I had the tune from somewhere but couldn't remember where.

I remember learning the Silver Tip from the the Trip to Sligo.

Mr.Gumby wrote:A 'Black Stripper' is a breed of cattle, by the way (it was slightly disappointing to find that).

Is it? It is the name of an implement used in coal mining. Do you think the cattle may have been named after the implement?

benhall.1 wrote:

Mr.Gumby wrote:A 'Black Stripper' is a breed of cattle, by the way (it was slightly disappointing to find that).

Is it? It is the name of an implement used in coal mining. Do you think the cattle may have been named after the implement?

Things must be pretty different over Right Pond way. When I search "stripper cow", I get this:

Is it? It is the name of an implement used in coal mining. Do you think the cattle may have been named after the implement?

The tune's title had me baffled for a while, until Paul de Grae told me it was 'a type of cow'. Looking into it a bit further during the course of this thread I found it was not as much a type of cow but a cow at the end of her lactation. Not sure if it's an Irish usage but it's pretty common, if you go looking for it. The tune title referring to a stripper cow is much more likely, given time and place. Lots of dairy farming in Ireland, something most people would be familiar with, while there is/was hardly any coal mining.

Always a laughable moment around here.