Abstract
This fragment of a song and polka was first heard by me in the early 1960s from Joe Holmes of Killyrammer, County Antrim who had learnt the tune and the few words from his brother Harry; the same brother had also given the twelve year old Joe his first fiddle in 1918 on his return from the First World War. I was delighted recently to come across a published version of the song in the archives of the Library of Congress in Washington DC.1 The song sheet states that the song was written and sung by William Carleton and performed in Tony Pastor’s Opera-House, which opened in the Bowery district of New York City in 1865 and the William Carleton here would not seem to be the County Tyrone novelist (1794- 1869). Today we usually associate polkas in Ireland with County Kerry, but this dance of eastern European origin arrived in Ireland in the early nineteenth century and was popular throughout Ireland, Europe and North America
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Ón gCos go Cluas |
| Subtitle of host publication | From Dancing to Listening |
| Editors | Liz Doherty, Fintan Vallely |
| Publisher | Aberdeen University Press |
| Chapter | 12 |
| Pages | 104-107 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-85752-073-6 |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |
| Event | North Atlantic Fiddle Convention Conference - Northern Ireland, Derry/Londonderry, United Kingdom Duration: 27 Jun 2012 → 1 Jul 2012 |
Publication series
| Name | Fiddle and Dance Studies from around the North Atlantic 5 |
|---|
Conference
| Conference | North Atlantic Fiddle Convention Conference |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| City | Derry/Londonderry |
| Period | 27/06/12 → 1/07/12 |
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Cite this
Graham, L. (2019). Joe Holmes: the singing North Antrim fiddler . In L. Doherty, & F. Vallely (Eds.), Ón gCos go Cluas: From Dancing to Listening (pp. 104-107). (Fiddle and Dance Studies from around the North Atlantic 5). Aberdeen University Press.