NigelGatherer.com
 Home Teaching Tunes Resources Forum Museum Store Contact
air & reel
St Patrick was a Gentleman/St Patrick's Reel

St Patrick was a Gentleman
These tunes are part of the following collections:

Music

March 17th c.389, the brith of Saint Patrick in Dumbarton. When he was 16 he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and kept as a slave for 6 years, after which he escaped and went back home to his family in Scotland. He became a cleric and returned to Ireland, becoming a bishop in later life. By the 7th century he was regarded as the patron saint of Ireland.

St Patrick was a Gentleman is the title of a comic song written by Henry Bennett and John Toleken of Cork who were known to sing it on stage in 1814 or 1815. The tune given here is from an Irish songbook published in 1895 where it says that it's an "old Irish air". Nathaniel Gow published a tune called Mrs Wemyss of Cuttlehill which has several similarities.

St Patrick's Reel is actually fairly modern, composed by Cape Breton fiddler Dan Hughie MacEachern (1913-1996).



Nigel Gatherer, Crieff, Perthshire | nigelgatherer@mac.com