In the Hannigan-Ledsam Low Whistle Book, there’s a setting of Mountain Road with the following variation on measure 7 of the A part:
X: 1
T: 7th measure A part variation
K: G
FAA2{B}A2{G}A2
In other words, a roll. Not on eighth notes, but on quarter notes.
Is this at all common? I don’t remember running into this before.
Is this at all common?
Yes. Rolls on eight notes on the other hand…
Are you sure you’re not having a brainfart of sorts?
~G2 BD dGBG|DG ~G2 etc shouldn’t be unfamiliar territory, if you think about it
Sorry … but just to clarify … you mean “familiar territory” right?
Sorry … but just to clarify … you mean “familiar territory” right?
Fixed original intention.
Ah. Thanks. 
Was having a brainfart of my own there.
Maybe an explain-myself-clearly fart.
A roll in which each of the three notes is a quarter note. A rolled dotted-half-note would be a better way to say it.
Hmmm, I see what you mean now. It see,s distinctly odd and is not something that would occur in any traditional style I am familiar with. To which I add I am blissfully unaware of any style of low whistle playing, and deliberately so, so perhaps it’s something you find there. Still seems odd though, at least the way it’s written in your example.
Surely a typesetting mistake. If you provide ABC for the last few bars of the section concerned, or a scan of the page, we should be able to solve the mystery.
It really doesn’t look like a typesetting mistake, or I’d think the measure wouldn’t time out.
Anyway, the main variant (measures 6-7-8 of the A part) looks like this:
X: 1
T: 6-7-8 measures A part main variant
K: G
F2AF EFDE|FAA2 BAAF|ABde fdd2
(Then there’s a variant for measures 1,3 and 5, and then one for measure 4.)
Then three distinct variants for measure 7:
X: 1
T: 7th measure A part 1st variation
K: G
FAA2 BAFA
X: 1
T: 7th measure A part 2nd variation (the one in question)
K: G
FAA2{B}A2{G}A2
X: 1
T: 7th measure A part 3rd variation
K: G
FAA2 BAA2
I’ve run these in an abc-to-staff converter and checked them against the book.
X: 1
T: 7th measure A part 2nd variation (the one in question)
K: G
FAA2{B}A2{G}A2
Not a roll then (I would think of a roll as a rhythmic device and that’s not how it would turn out on those last two As) but assuming the first long A gets a roll FA~A2 you get two long As of which the first one gets separated by a cut and the second a tap. One way of doing it I suppose.
Alternatively you could go all Willie Clancy or Johnny Doran/traveller style multiple rolling : FA~A2 ~A2 ~A2 Which, perhaps, would be a more common approach (or at least one I’d be more familiar with, hearing it around the place).
I agree with Mr. Gumby. Those are just two long notes with articulations at the front of each of them. Probably the cut and tap are there to give a slightly different flavour to each of the A’s.