Rory Dall

Ruaidhrí Dall Ó Catháin
is credited with at least 13 tunes. It is often confusing, when a tune is printed in an 18th century book, and described as "By Rory Dall": which Rory Dall? However, tunes can be connected to one another and to earlier variants appearing in older books and manuscripts, many of which predate the Scottish Rory Dall; tunes can be grouped stylistically, and there are anecdotes about their composition, so there is little doubt that these all were by the Irish Rory Dall.

Click here for a complete tune-list index (PDF) (updated February 2011)

Perhaps his most famous tune is "Da Mihi Manum", which in Irish is "Tabhair Dom Do Lamh". Other compositions are a series of tunes called "Port" including "Port Atholl" and "Port Gordon". An interesting tune called "Cumha Peathar Ruaidhri - Rorie Dall's Sisters Lament" is often claimed for Rory Dall Morison but it appears in a manuscript of the 1620s, before Morison was born, so presumably it belongs to Ó Catháin.

Duration 4:18
Listen to "Da Mihi Manum" played by Simon Chadwick, from the CD Clàrsach na Bànrighe, EGH 1, 2008.

Ruaidhri Dall Mac Mhuirich does not appear to have left us any tunes at all. His songs were mostly composed to traditional Gaelic song airs, and if he did compose tunes they have not survived, or at least not with any connection to him. Some people have tried to link him with some or other of the tunes ascribed to "Rory Dall" in old printed sources but none of these arguments are convincing. Perhaps the Scottish Rory Dall was simply a better songwriter than a composer!