There are so many tunes with titles like “Humours of Ballyconnell,” “Humours of Lisheen,” “Humours of Tooma,” and on and on…what does humours mean in this context?
Susan
It’s a polite term for gas pains.
It is also my understanding that it could be considered the “juices of life”. Bodily humours where things like blood and bile and other bodily excretions.
Erik
It’s some kind of bone. like, “The Bones of Dublin,” “O’Hara’s Bones,” “Fea’dog Bone Stain,” etc.
All these answers are pretty humoresque but my dictionary says that it is the “character, style or spirit (of a musical or literary composition, etc)”. It also relates to mood or “mental disposition” as determined by the bodily humours. Thus The Humours of Whiskey would be the spirit of spirits.
Steve
… and I guess the “Humours of Humour” would then be a metadiscussion?? 
Cheers,
Bill Whedon
When tunes began to be notated, and players didn’t have names for them, it was common for the transcriber to invent names for them.
Often, this consisted of picking a placename (often one dear to the latter) and prefacing it with “The Humours of”… A lot of these names in O’Neill’s compilations are from the area around Bantry, in Co. Cork, where he grew up, for example.
“Humours” is the English word very often used in song titles to translate the Irish Gaelic word “pléarácaí” which means revelry, merrymaking, carousing, etc.
'luck now,
brian_k
gas pains? d’ya mean farts?
On 2002-10-18 17:40, TubeDude wrote:
<<It’s some kind of bone. like, “The Bones of Dublin,” “O’Hara’s Bones,” "Fea’dog Bone Stain>>
I thought that was “Femurs of Liscarrol” etc.
Timmy
On 2002-10-18 17:28, Bloomfield wrote:
It’s a polite term for gas pains.
I thought that was “vapors”
On 2002-10-21 11:01, OutOfBreath wrote:
I thought that was “vapors”
Gas pains are vapors… Genteel southern ladies used to suffer from these if their corsets were too tightly laced. 
From what I know of medical antiquity, humours are “liquids of life”, such as blood, etc. Perhaps there is a different meaning in the context of traditional music…
Andrea ~*~
On 2002-10-21 11:01, OutOfBreath wrote:
On 2002-10-18 17:28, Bloomfield wrote:
It’s a polite term for gas pains.I thought that was “vapors”
Only in “Gone with the Wind”.
~Larry
On 2002-10-21 11:09, madguy wrote:
Only in “Gone with the Wind”. >
~Larry
Sounds like a great title for a workshop presented by an asthmatic over-the-hill blowhard…
Wendina
On 2002-10-21 12:11, klezmusic wrote:
On 2002-10-21 11:09, madguy wrote:
Only in “Gone with the Wind”. >
~Larry
[/quotSounds like a great title for a workshop presented by an asthmatic over-the-hill blowhard…
Wendina
What a great sense of humor!!!
~Larry
[ This Message was edited by: madguy on 2002-10-21 12:19 ]