Swallowtail Jig

Nobody knows who wrote it, though it is usually filed as Irish. The name may come from the swallowtail coats dancing masters wore in the early 1800s; O'Neill called it "The Dancing Master," which fits that idea.

Ryan's Mammoth Collection and Kerr's Merry Melodies both printed it in the 1880s. Joseph Allard, the Quebec fiddler, recorded it in 1931 as "Gigue de Barnabe," and Northumbrian sword dance teams have danced to it. Its short, even phrases make it a common first jig.