"The Ladies' Pantalettes (1)", in Gaelic "Bristide na M-Ban" or "Drairini na Mna Uaisle", also known "The Blue Pantaloons", "The Boatman's Reel", "The Crooked Road to Dublin", "The Duke of Leinster's Wife", "Gardner's Favorite", "The Green Pantaloons", "The Grey Frieze Breeches", "Johnny Sally's Reel", "Leonard's Reel", "Ladies Pantaloos", "Ladys Pantaloons", "McKeon's", "Pat the Fowler" or "Smash the Floor" is an Irish reel in G Major or G Mixolydian. The parts are played AB (Mitchell, O'Connor, O'Neill/1001) or AAB (Breathnach, Kennedy, Krassen/O'Neill). The tune is circular so I have added a fine to end the tune. For a minor key version, see "The Ladies' Pantalettes (2)".
Pantalettes were a type of calf-length ruffled undergarment worn by 19th century women underneath their voluminous skirts.
O'Neill's titles are "Ladies' Pantalettes" and "Pat the Fowler". Mid-19th century County Cork cleric and uilleann piper James Goodman gave it as "The Green Pantaloons" in his manuscript collection, while Gortletteragh, County Leitrim, fiddler Stephen Grier entered it as "The Blue Pantaloons" in his c. 1883 manuscript.
O'Neill (Irish Folk Music, 1910) relates that he first heard this tune while on duty as Desk Sergeant at the Deering Street police station:
The strains of a slashing but unfamiliar reel floating out on the night air from the lowered windows of Finucane's Hall caught my eager ear one Saturday night, when Tommy Owens was playing for a party...as the police station was just across the street, I had little difficulty in memorizing the tune. Although it had never been printed it soon gained wide circulation among experts, and it had become such a favorite with Inspector John D. Shea (the Chief of Detectives), that it has since been identified with his name.
It was printed in Breathnach's Ceol Rince na hÉireann vol. III (1985), Cotter's Traditional Irish Tin Whistle Tutor (1989), Kennedy's Traditional Dance Music of Britain and Ireland: Reels and Rants (1997), Mitchell's Dance Music of Willie Clancy (1993), Gerry O'Connor's The Rose in the Gap (2018), O'Neill's O'Neill's Irish Music (1915), Krassen's O'Neill's Music of Ireland (1976), O'Neill's Music of Ireland: 1850 Melodies (1903), O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907) and Taylor's Music for the Sets: Blue Book (1995).
It was recorded by Willie Clancy on The Pipering of Willie Clancy, vol. 1 (1980), Eddie Mullaney and Patrick Stack (1926) and Bela Fleck and the Chieftains on Down the Old Plank Road (2002).