Ashplant

The Ashplant takes its name from a plain piece of country gear: a stick cut from an ash sapling, its root-end trimmed to a knob that fit the hand, carried by Irish farmers and drovers to steer cattle. Breandán Breathnach printed the reel in Ceol Rince na hÉireann (vol. I, 1963, no. 116), drawing his setting from the piper Pat Brophy and the Sligo flute player Noel Tansey. The title is shared with a separate D-major reel more usually called Coleman's, so it pays to know which Ashplant is meant. Altan recorded it on The Blue Idol.