Hag with the Money

Behind the jig's English title sits a well-known Connemara song, "Cailleach an Airgid" — "the hag with the money" — whose chorus, "Sí do mhaimeo í," names a rich old grandmother from Iorras Mór who could put coaches on the roads of Cois Fhairrge. The melody long circulated on its own as a dance tune: Petrie's Complete Collection (1905) prints it as "I was born for sport," noted from the piper Patrick Coneelly in 1845. It stayed closest to its sung roots among the singers of Connemara, and Altan recorded a setting on Harvest Storm.