Where and from whom procured: An old man at Deel Castle, 1792.¹

111. Bɼíġid og na gciaḃ

‘Young Bridget with the fair locks’

Occurs in O’Sullivan as “29. Bridget Cruise. Fourth Air” of which he notes:

“It will be observed that this tune derives solely from the Bunting MSS., where it is not attributed to Carolan”²

…and believes this attribution where it occurs elsewhere to be doubtful.

He also tells us that there are two possible sets of verses of which the first (from The Bunting MSS. in the Library of the Queen’s University, Belfast³) is more metrically suited and likewise contains no attribution to Carolan, and was noted by Patrick Lynch from Nat Guttery, Castlebar.

1. Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland – Arranged for the Piano Forte (vol.3). Hodges and Smith, Dublin, 1840, p82.
2. Donal O’Sullivan, Carolan: The Life, Times and Music of an Irish Harper. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1958.
   — New ed. (Cork: Ossian, 2001), p236.
3. MS. 18, p55, with fair copy in MS. 7, no.67.