Rory O'More - jig

This jig was once a very popular dance tune, but it's not heard much these days. I learned it off the great fiddler Jesse Smyth, who found it in an old music collection as I recall. We recorded it together on a CD called The Taproom Trio, although we pitched it in A major there, as opposed G as I play it here. It's unusual in that the parts are only played once. The title refers to a famous Irish rebel, although the Fiddler's Companion reminds us of the fluidity of allegiences that often occur with the People's Music... "Colonel Roger “Rory” O’More (c. 1620-1655) was a minor Irish noble and the titular King of Laois, who rose to fame as the scourge of the English during the reign of Charles I. The jig was composed by Samuel Lover and became the "hit tune" of 1837. Although initially a dance tune (a popular Scottish country dance is called "Rory O'More"), it was absorbed as a common march in the Victorian era British army and can be found in martial manuscript books dating from the 1850's (Winscott)."