Recalling Ciaran Carson’s pocket guide “Irish Traditional Music”…in the section discussing “The Instruments”, along with guitars, 'zouks, banjos, whistles, etc. he mentions the “ivy leaf”. Neither my IrTrad friends nor I have ever heard of it. Does anybody know what this is?
N, hmmm…
N, The Ivy Leaf is a very fine reel found in O’Neill’s. Our concertina player introduced it to our band years ago, and BTW, a nice pipe tune!
Lorenzo, I’m aware of the tune (on my must-learn list!), but this was listed as an instrument…perhaps it was a typo or could it be Ciaran was yanking the reader’s chain?
N, scratching my head
Never heard of the instrument. Must be one of those finer reed instruments from the lost age, the kind where you hold the leaf between the thumbs and blow like mad! Hope it’s not poison ivy. Now, the fig leaf…
Hey, ain’t “The Fig Leaf” a hornpipe? 
N, ducking and running
Just found some info on this in a 1985 edition of Treoir (thanks to Tom Dahill and his collection).
From an article written by Máire Ní hAragán Uí Bhéaslaoí called “The Rambling House”, comes this exerpt:
“Any night that we didn’t have musicians, we had a character who played an ivy leaf. His name was Jack Goggin and he hailed from Gweenguillin. He worked on the farm with my Father. He would say to me when I was a child “watch out for the biggest ivy leaf.” The older the leaf the sweeter the tune. He would put two leaves together he would grease them together with goose grease, then place them on a flat stone and tease the outer edges together with the palm of his hand. Sometimes he would use an iron. He would then use a foal’s covering to to reseal the leaves. When this was done he would hold the ivy leaf between his thumbs and gently blow. This produced a very plaintive and lonely sound. His favourite tune was the “Cúlfhionn”, he loved to play slow airs. The poor man died as he lived, he was found under a tree covered in ivy. An ivy leaf was found in his waistcoat pocket.”(Treoir, Iml 17 1985 Uimhir 2 4 ISSN 0790-004X)
Sounds like the blade-of-grass-between-the-thumbs trick, only with more sophistication behind it. Can’t make out the technique to building this impromptu instrument, but there it is. Has anyone ever seen and heard this do-it-yourself instrument being played?
Nano, I’m not sure I follow the description you provided. Are you sure you didn’t leave something out? You blow on the fig leaf and then … what’s supposed to happen? 
djm
IVY leaf, you prurient, fleabitten cat-oid thing; IVY leaf.
Sure! Sure! Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah. So there you are, with the olive branch, tickling the fig leaf, and along comes this Ivy League type, rolling over in the clover, and … then what?
djm
Uhhh…light the leaf up and smoke it?
Of course! Brilliant!
Now, this foal’s covering, what is it? A horse blanket that shrank, or a brand of rolling paper?
Man, am I getting hungry! I could definitely do some serious snacking right about now …
mjd
Well, the article said that the foal’s covering was used to seal the leaves…I think that’s obvious enough, then, but that would be one helluva mongo spliff, and I think the smell as it burnt would be not so different from turves. I still can’t get how to play the thing, though.
djm signed off:
“mjd”
И
Sorry, I don’t get “foal’s covering”. What is it?
δĵμ
Seriously. I mean it. I don’t get it. What is it?
I really don’t know. I presumed it was like horse baby clothes, a covering like you see on racehorses and the like, but I’m guessing. And have you ever smelled goose fat? “Rich” is a word that fits the case. I might be tempted to eat the ivy leaf instead of play it.
And no, I haven’t left anything out of the exerpt. I made sure that I quoted it word for word, punctuation and all.
It sounds like the foals’s placental sack to me. The sack is tacky enough.
Welcome, Denny!
Or perhaps the caul?
Thanks
What is “caul”
“Caul” is the membrane that covers the newborn itself, unless by “placental sack” you meant the same thing. Difference of terms, maybe?
Sound like! I know enough to straighten legs and fish for a nose, but nomenclature was never my strong suit.