Monday 1 June 2026
Tune of the Day: Hardiman the Fiddler
Traditional Irish slip jig
The earliest appearance of this slip jig under the name “Hardy Man the Fiddler” is found in Francis O'Neill's Music of Ireland, published in Chicago in 1903. There are several tunes with the name “Hardiman” (of which “Hardiman the Fiddler” is probably the most famous). Collector David Taylor (1992) suggests that they honor the historian James Hardiman, author of Irish Minstrelsy (1831).
Similar slip jigs can be found in earlier manuscript copybooks, such as the one by Stephen Grier from County Leitrim, dating from around 1883.