Hi Guys, i have a quick question for you all, concerning the tune O’Farrell’s Welcome to Limerick. Both the Glen book Irish tunes for War/Highland Pipes (1911) and O’Farrell’s Complete Collection of National Irish Music for |Union Pipes( c1810), available on Na Piobairi Uilleann, have this tune with a sixth part. So when and why did this part stop being played? and also, why is the second part repeated as the fifth part?
Many thanks…
Dave
The tune came back in circulation when Willie Clancy heard Sean O Riada play the tune ‘from a book’. Willie took it up and the rest of us followed his lead.
The second/fith part thing, I don’t know. Clancy clearly went dcd ege d for the second and dcd ege c for the fifth but that has in the hands of most people become the latter for both passes. The sixth part is essentially the same as the third (a few Ds changing octaves aside) so I can see the point of dropping that as too repetitive.
I think there’s a bit more difference than that, and I think adding the sixth part helps balance the whole tune better - it makes it seem that it’s a three part tune with a variation on each part…
Yes Nico, It’s high time we make the sixth part a standard here in Detroit. Plus we should also play it the Willie Clancy way with the D on the second part.
Let’s start a trend.
Now I just need to learn part six from you 
IMO you should definitely keep the c for the fifth part. I don’t like hearing the c at that point in the second part.