The Torn Jacket

Cork fiddler Connie O'Connell composed this reel, and its name comes from a practical joke. At the 1985 Oireachtas in Cork, after his friend Déaglán Tallon took first prize for a newly composed Irish-language song, O'Connell convinced him he'd torn his jacket in the excitement; when Tallon learned it was a prank, he reckoned the mishap would make a good tune name, and O'Connell agreed. It turns up on Hammy Hamilton's "The Moneymusk" and on Kevin Crawford's "D Flute Album," and pipers have warmed to it too — Brian McNamara recorded it on "A Piper's Dream."