The Merry Sisters
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Standard Notation
ABC Notation
Mandolin Tablature
Violin Tablature
traditional
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Transcription: by Darryl D. Bush
"The Merry Sisters", in Gaelic "Na Deirbsiuiraca Sugaca", also known as "Cross Road",<br> "Margret O'Donnell's", "The Miltown Maid" or "Mill Town Maid" is an Irish reel, from Counties<br> Sligo and Donegal in A Dorian (Brody) or E Dorian (Flaherty, O'Neill). The parts are played<br> AABC (Brody), AA'BC (Flaherty), AA'BC (O'Neill/1001) or AA'BCC' (O'Neill/Krassen).<br> An early recording of the melody was by Frank O'Higgins (1891-1975), a fiddler from Glenamona,<br> Kilskeer, County Meath, in Dublin in 1937 who paired it with "The Dogs Among the Bushes" and<br> "Kitty Gone a Milking".<br> Paddy Ryan, writing in Treoir, says O'Higgins "was a highly<br> esteemed figure in traditional music circles in and around Dublin. He also taught the fiddle<br> for many years and, among his star pupils was Larry Redican, who was prominent in New York<br> traditional music circles during his lifetime there." The reel was also in the repertoire of<br> uilleann piper Séamus Ennis, who also may have learned it from O'Higgins, as his father,<br> James Ennies played with O'Higgins in The Fingal Trio.<br> It was printed in Brody's Fiddler's Fakebook (1983),<br> Flaherty's Trip to Sligo (1990),<br> O'Neill (Krassen) (1976),<br> O'Neill's Dance Music of Ireland: 1001 Gems (1907),<br> Peoples' Fifty Irish Fiddle Tunes (1986),<br> Treoir, vol. 36, No. 1 (2004),<br> Vallely's Play Tin Whistle with the Armagh Pipers Club, vol. 2.<br> It was recorded by Chieftains on Chieftains 3 (1971/1982),<br> Matt Molloy on Shadows on Stone,<br> Tommy Peoples on The Iron Man.<br>
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