Mrs. Crotty's hornpipe source?

[Takayuki YAGI]

According to this page:

https://www.cranfordpub.com/recordings/mcnamarajewel.htm

Quote

Gearoid informs me that the tune has all the characteristics of single-row concertina tune &endash; played totally on the C row of the old style German made concertina and that he acquired it indirectly from Mrs. Crotty having learned it from Dublin fiddler Mary McElvaney.

Is this tune not originally from the Kilrush area? Does anyone have any information on Mary McElvaney?

 

[Peter Laban]

I had not come across the tune before Brian McNamara's recording.  I can't think of a recording of Mrs Crotty playing it.

 

Mary McElvaney was part of a group of young fiddlers that emerged in Dublin  during the seventies, with her sister Bríd, Roma Casey, Edel McWeeney etc. She recorded with the Pipers Club Ceiliband at the time and was part of Macalla during the eighties. Macalla reformed for a concert in Ennis when Mary MacNamara received the Mór Glór award, just before Covid hit (which was quite lovely, I had last seen them in 1984 or 85). 

 

The RTE archive has some nice 1984 footage of Macalla : here

 

 

Here's  a  snap from a once off reunion of the Pipers Club Ceiliband in 2015. They are Mary Corcoran, keyboard, Gay and Seán McKeon, pipes (Seán was sitting in for Peter McKenna who played pipes alongside Gay in the original line up) , Deirdre Hodge, concertina, Edel McWeeney, Roma Casey, Bríd and Mary McElvaney, fiddles. Barely visible in the photo, Aidan Vaughan was playing the drums on the day.

 

 

And here's a scan of the image on  the back cover of the original Pipers Club Ceili band lp.:

 

 

 

Edited October 3, 2022 by Peter Laban

[Takayuki YAGI]

Thanks for letting me know! Also photos and footage. So then Mary McElvaney is much later than Mrs. Crotty. If Mrs. Crotty learned from Mary McElvaney, it would have been in her later years.

[Peter Laban]

You have the wrong chronology: it says G. learned the tune from Mary McE. And then claims to have learned it indirectly from Mrs C.  That, in turn,  implies Mary McE. must have learned it from Lizzie Crotty. A recording, you'd have to assume, as their lives would not, or barely, have overlapped.

[Takayuki YAGI]

Ah, I understood correctly. Thank you very much. I need to study English more.