Monday 22 September 2025
Tune of the Day: The Stolen Purse
Traditional Irish jig
This jig first appeared in Francis O'Neill's collection The Dance Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1907. In Irish Folk Music: a Fascinating Hobby (1910), O'Neill remarked:
Through Edward Cronin's efforts we obtained from John Mulvihill, a native of Limerick, an unpublished jig named the “Stolen Purse”, which in its quaint tonality indicates its evolution from some traditional lament.
Cronin, a excellent fiddler, was a member of the Irish Music Club in Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century, and was himself born in Limerick in the 1840s.