BEL(L)FAST ALLMANACK (ALMANAC), THE. AKA and see "Planxty Connor," "Planxty John O'Connor," "Planxty Mrs. O'Connor." Scottish ('a favorite Irish air'), Jig. G Major. Standard. AABB (Gow): AABBCC (Athole). The name Belfast means 'crossing place by a sandbank'. Carlin (Gow Collection), 1986; No. 321. Stewart-Robertson (The Athole Collection), 1884; pg. 156.
T:Belfast Almanac, The
L:1/8
M:6/8
R:Jig
B:The Athole Collection
K:G
D|G2G FED|E2F G2A|B2G c2A|B2G c2A|B>cd E2E|ABG FED|
E>FG AFD| G3 G2:|
|:c|Bcd def|g2g g3|B2B Bcd|e2e e3|dcB cde|dBd D2 D|E>FG AFD|
G3 G2:|
|:A|B2G c2A|B2G c2A|~B>cd E2E|ABG FED|B2G c2A|B2G ~B>cd|
E>FG AFD|G3 G2:|
PLANXTY CONNOR. See "The Belfast Almanac," "John O'Connor," "Planks of Connaught" "Planxty Mrs. O'Conor."
PLANXTY MRS. O'CONOR (Pleraca Maigisdreas Ni Concobair). AKA - "Planxty Connor." AKA and see "John O'Connor." Irish, Air or Planxty (6/8 time, "spirited"). G Major. Standard. ABC (O'Neill): AA'BB' (Moylan). Composed by blind Irish harper Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738), originally titled "John O'Connor." The earliest printed source appears to be in Neals' Carolan collection, c 1721; according to O'Sullivan it also can be found on page 27 of the John Lee edition of O'Carolan's tunes, c 1780. The melody appears as "Planks of Connaught" in Burke Thumoth's collection of c. 1745 and Bryson's Curious Collection. As "Planxty Connor" it can be found in In Bunting's 2nd collection, O'Farrell's National Irish Music, Murphy's Jigs and Airs, and Aird's Airs, v. 6. Bruce Olson finds it it published by Gow as "The Belfast Almanac."
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Francis O'Neill (1913) relates a story about the tune, played at the hands of the famous Thady Elliot of County Meath (b. 1725), another blind harper:
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A practical joker of a type not yet extinct, knowing that he
was to paly at the celebration of Mass on Christmas morning
at the town of Navan, took him to a public house or tavern
the evening before, and bribed him with the promise of a gallon
of whiskey to strike up "Planxty Connor," one of O'Carolan's
lively tunes at the time of the Elevation. With all due decorum
Thady played sacred music until the appointed time, when true
to his work, he swung into "Planxty Connor" to the horror of
the officiating priest who well knew the apocryphal nature of
the melody. Other means of showing his displeasure being
unavailable, the priest repeatedly stamped his foot. Some who
thought his emphatic movement was but an irresistible response
to Thady's spirited strain whispered "Dhar Dhia tha an Sagart ag
Rinnce." The daring and irrevcerent harper after a few
rounds of the Planxty resumed the sacred airs, but that didn't
save him from denunciation and dismissal after the service.
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