No, I’m sure you’re right but I play high whistle too.
Perhaps it was more a particular treatment than the choice of instrument I thought of as possibly less suited to some airs.
You can find it here as a mp3 http://www.tinwhistler.com/tunes.aspx
Anach Cuain (Eanach Dhuin)
Má fhaighimse sláinte is fada bheidh trácht
Ar an méid a bádh as Eanach Cuain.
'S mo thrua 'márach gach athair 's máthair
Bean is páiste 'tá á sileadh súl!
A Rí na nGrást a cheap neamh is párthas,
Nar bheag an tábhacht dúinn beirt no triúr,
Ach lá chomh breá leis gan gaoth ná báisteach
Lán a bháid acu scuab ar shiúl.
Nár mhór an t-íonadh ós comhair na ndaoine
Á bhfeicáil sínte ar chúl a gcinn,
Screadadh 'gus caoineadh a scanródh daoine,
Gruaig á cíoradh 's an chreach á roinnt.
Bhí buachaillí óg ann tíocht an fhómhair,
Á síneadh chrochar, is a dtabhairt go cill.
'S gurb é gléas a bpósta a bhí dá dtoramh
'S a Rí na Glóire nár mhór an feall.
If my health is spared I’ll be long relating
Of that boat that sailed out of Anach Cuain.
And the keening after of mother and father
And child by the harbour, the mournful croon!
King of Graces, who died to save us,
T’were a small affair but for one or two,
But a boat-load bravely in calm day sailing
Without storm or rain to be swept to doom.
What wild despair was on all the faces
To see them there in the light of day,
In every place there was lamentation,
And tearing of hair as the wreck was shared.
And boys there lying when crops were ripening,
From the strength of life they were borne to clay
In their wedding clothes for their wake they robed them
O King of Glory, man’s hope is in vain.
Mr.Gumby,
Mute Swans probably don’t sing, dying or not! 
Cheers Mate,
Cayden
Whooper swans do however and can be sighted in the Hebrides.
And the swan song is a cultural phrase with meanings attached
regardless of whether there is a natural explanation for the legend or not.
I think that this is a moving piece.
I wish I could play it as well as Davy. Still, plenty of time (years?) for practice.
And here we’ve reached the point where the thread really needs to differentiate between new agey mood music and slow airs in the accepted use of the word.
I’m looking for airs to learn on the low whistle, the more melancholy, heart-wrenching the better.
Air (music)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Air (Italian: “aria”; also ayr, ayre in French), a variant of the musical song form, (in opera, cantata and oratorio often referred to as aria), is the name of various song-like vocal or instrumental compositions, and can also be applied to the interchangeable melodies of folk songs and ballads.
To be honest, my request wasn’t meant to be confined to Irish & Scottish music though that’s where some of the most anguished lament-type tunes are to be found. Caoineadh Cu Chulainn is definitely one I should try and, being a staunch fan of Spillane, I’m ashamed I forgot it. And I think Bill Whelan might be a little upset to have this music labelled as “new-agey.” He is Irish and writes very much within the Irish tradition.
Nice DrPhill. Sounds good to me. What’s the whistle?
Thanks Mike, though there is a definite stumble in there, and several phrases that I would like to do better. But there is always next time, or the time after that, or…
The Bleazey again. For slow music like this (which is what I really enjoy playing) it works well. I have not found a whistle with a tone that I like better.
He is Irish and writes very much within the Irish tradition.
Like Riverdance?
I have no problem whatsoever with that sort of stuff but Riverdance or anything in it is completely and utterly separate from anything in the Irish tradition. But that discussion was had in 1996, read Tom Munnelly or Tony McMahon’s contributions to the Crossroads conference to catch up on that dead horse.
On a different tack: check out Spillane’s work with Andy Irvine and Bill Whelan on Eastwind.
Yes, thanks, I’ve already listened to Eastwind but you have me interested. Where would I read about the discussion on Riverdance?
Tony McMahon’s presentation used to be on his website but that is long gone.
All I am saying that maybe there is a need to distinguish between the traditional and the, well, whatever you want to call it, the modern, the new agey or any label that may or may not fit. For example, Spillane’s take on the May Morning Dew is a horse of a very different colour compared to a ‘traditional’ rendition that follows the song (like maybe Mick O Brien’s recording of it). No judgement involved, just indicating they’re very different things and should be taken as such.
Understood.
“Abracadabra!”
(oleorezinator gestures hypnotically…) 
http://web-beta.archive.org/web/20060721062307/http://www.macmahon.info/passionpf.html
The wayback machine. Should have thought of that.
Do note McMahon’s original website is not archived and the paper as it was on the site and the way it made it into the book was an expanded version of the one linked above.
A lot of water has passed under that bridge since then too, it’s all very nineties.
Let’s be clear that Caoineadh Cu Chulainn is a “show tune” like the songs in Broadway musicals.
It and the rest of the Riverdance soundtrack has nothing to do with traditional Irish music (from what I heard, when I saw the show here in LA). Actually the main theme is based more on Bulgarian dance music than Irish dance music.
And being a fan of Spillane, I would think, would have nothing to do with it. Spillane is a professional musician and if he were paid large sums of money to go on tour playing Somewhere Over the Rainbow or any other “show tune” he would do it. Professional musicians do the gig they are given. There have many different tours of Riverdance and they have used many different pipers. In other words there is no inherent connexion between Spillane and Caoineadh Cu Chulainn as far as I know.
My introduction to that tune was when I was requested to play it at a funeral or wedding (I don’t remember). The client thought the tune was a traditional Irish tune. I was puzzled because I’ve been playing ITM for decades and have piles of Irish music books (both ITM and the Tin Pan Alley stuff) and that tune wasn’t in any of them. Well they gave me the sheet music and I saw that it was a show tune from Riverdance! I told them that it wasn’t a traditional Irish tune but rather a show tune, and that I played a large number of genuine Irish airs all of which are much more interesting and beautiful. I thought the tune was derivative, unimaginative, and rather boring. But that tune is what they wanted and I played it and immediately forgot about it.
Similarly people often request Toora Loora thinking it’s a traditional Irish song. I tell them it’s a show tune, on top of that a show tune clearly derived from Irish Eyes Are Smiling, itself not a traditional Irish song but a Tin Pan Alley song.
EDIT: just looked up Toora Loora and When Irish Eyes are Smiling. Both songs are American.
Irish Eyes was written in 1912 for the show “The Isle O’ Dreams”. (Music by Ernest Ball, words by Chauncey Olcott and George Graff Jr.)
Toora Loora was written in 1914 by James Royce Shannon for the musical “Shameen Dhu”. (Shannon was born in Michigan.) He obviously lifted Ernest Ball’s melody for the song.
Now that’s interesting. I could have sworn that Too-ra-loo-ra (or whatever it’s called) was Irish. But then, I hadn’t realised that James Royce Shannon was American. I knew about the other one (or at least, I knew it was American).
Thanks for the info, Richard. 
You’re welcome!
I’m glad I looked those songs up. I knew about Irish Eyes also, but I had thought that Toora Loora was written in the 1944 for Going My Way. So rather it’s just another Tin Pan Alley pseudo-Irish song!
It’s obvious that the two songs have basically the same melody, something I point out to people who request that I play both at a funeral or wedding. Play them as a medley and few will notice when you switch songs! (Well I suppose they could be put in different keys to make it more obvious.)
For those unfamiliar with the term Tin Pan Alley, here it is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tin_Pan_Alley
Nearly all the songs that Americans think of as “Irish songs” were written in Tin Pan Alley in New York. Note also that some classic “New Orleans” jazz songs were written there! And songs we hear all the time here in the USA such as Take Me Out To The Ball Game (sung at every baseball game).
When I was a young teen my grandfather gave me a dog-eared book of “Irish” music published in the 1920’s. It was to him, a singer, the “real thing” just as it was to my father, a box player, probably because that is all they had to hold on to. And being well worn it was apparently often used by his father, my great grand, who was a fiddler and Irish born. The music was a mix of tunes from Capt. O’Neill’s collections and Tin Pan Alley songs. My take on it was that the traditional tunes were known and played. Still those American Pop tunes were embraced by many Irish-Americans and being so they were sung and played when requested at social gatherings.
Feadoggie