Out on the Ocean

Behind the seafaring title sits an older Irish name: George Petrie collected the jig in the mid-19th century as "The Bucks of Ahasnagh," and James Goodman, the Cork uilleann piper and Church of Ireland cleric, entered a version in his manuscripts as "The Tithes Are All Down." The Traditional Tune Archive traces it further back still, to the Lowland Scots "Rock and a Wee Pickle Tow," a women's spinning song — a rock being a distaff, a wee pickle tow a small wad of prepared flax. Francis O'Neill learned it from Patrick "Big Pat" O'Mahony, a West Clare flute player turned Chicago police patrolman.