I KNOW I should KNOW the tune that the leprecaun is dancing to, but I don’t. 
I hear it all the *&%$in’ time! and it’s driving me crazy.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/icons_screensavers/3ddancingleprechaun.html
Can anyone help me out?
LEE
The tune is a jig, “Scarce O’ Tatties,” composed for the GHB.
The Clarke Tin Whistle Book by Bill Ochs has the following to offer about it:
“A recently composed tune by Norman Maclean, piper from Uist in the Outer Hebrides. A friend of his working in London complained about the qulaity of potatoes there, and so this tune was born”
Isn’t this tune used as the theme music for the radio program Thistle and Shamrock? I know that Silly Wizard made a recording of it.
Thanks Johnathan!
Now that I think about it, I believe you’re right about the T & S theme.
I also heard the Chieftains play it as part of a set they did on NPR a few weeks ago.
Your desciption of the history of the tune is interesting. I’m a little surprised that the title is unfamiliar to me. I hear it so often, I just assumed that it was a standard trad tune in the vein of Kesh Jig or Irish Washer Woman; something that EVERYONE (but me 
knows.
Thanks again.
LEE
“Scarce O Tatties” was composed by piper and humorist Norman MacLean.
I haven’t listened to Thistle & Shamrock for a long time but that isn’t the jig I remember as the opener (I reserve the right to be wrong about that).
Silly Wizard recorded it in a set of jigs on their Live Wizardry CD (released on cassette as “Golden”) as well as on the studio album “So Many Partings.”
Thanks Aaron.
Upon your description, I just went and captured that Silly Wizard album from emusic! It’s the very first cut.
Now I can R.I.P. 
(if I can ever get the tune out of my head)
LEE
I can’t be sure, either, as the show hasn’t run in San Diego for many years. I looked on their pages on the NPR website, and couldn’t find any reference to or audio clips of the intro. What is the tune you remember, Aaron?
I seem to recall that there was one tune used early on in the series as the opening theme, and later (circa 1990 or so?) they switched to another one.
Does anyone know what tune is used for the Thistle and Shamrock opening theme, or can anyone point to an audio clip of the intro?
Last time I listened to T&S the opener was a jig on whistle with bodhran. The tune’s floating in my head. If I had a whistle hand I might be able to decipher it. But it’s been a few years since I’ve listened to the show. Back home it was on ajdacent to Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion.
Long ago, T&S used Garech’s Wedding as its theme music. Not sure what gets played these days for the opening.
Yes, that’s the one I remember from long ago. There’s some discussion about it and an ABC here on C&F.
That’s the tune I remember… have they changed it?
I met Fiona Ritchie in Dunkeld yesterday and asked about this. She said the “Thistle And Shamrock” hadn’t really had a theme tune since about 1993, but that before that , they’d used “Scarce O’Tatties”.
Thanks, Kenny.
WOW. Right from the SOURCE!
Thanks, Kenny 
I listen to Fiona’s show just about every weekend.
I’m lucky, one NPR station here plays it at noon, and another I get has it at 7:00 pm. So I can catch T & S twice if I time things right!
Last week was an Awsome show: “Bridging the Atlantic”. Good Canadian stuff along with the auld world tunes.