Coleman's Cross

"Coleman's Cross", in Gaelic "Crosbhóthar an Cholmánaigh", is an Irish reel in E dorian. The parts are played AB (Black) or ABB (Breathnach, Brody).
The name "Coleman's Cross" was applied to this reel on New York fiddler Kathleen Collins' Shanachie LP. Collins told New York musician Don Meade that she had picked it up during the time she was living in Ireland in the 1960s from a Sligo musician whose name she could not recall, probably fiddler Tommy Flynn, whose playing of the tune on a tape from the 1960s was issued on a Comhaltas LP of the McDonagh brothers of Ballinafad and friends. The name used on Kathleen Collins' LP commemorates a favorite spot for crossroads dancing in south County Sligo. Mary O'Beirne, who emigrated from Killavil, County Sligo in 1930 and married the famous New York fiddler James "Lad" O'Beirne (also originally from Killavil) remembered:

We danced a lot in Ireland. There was always house parties and we'd get up and do the four-hand reel...On a Sunday evening, everybody knew that there was always music at the Coleman's Crossroads. So people would come from Gorteen, Bunninadden, Tubbercurry, all the townlands. And boys and girls would ride the bicycles and just stop there and the next thing you know, there'd be music right at the Crossroads.

It was printed in Black's Music's the Very Best Thing (1996), Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann III (1985) and Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983).
It was recorded by Oisíin McAuley on From the Hills of Donegal (2007), Kathleen Collins on Kathleen Collins (1976), Kevin Burke on Sweeney's Dream (1977), Tommy Flynn on The McDonaghs of Ballinafad and Friends Play Traditional Music of Sligo (c. 2000) and Wendy MacIsaac on Timeline (2003).