Toss the Feathers

The title is thought to be a bawdy joke about a feather bed, though P. W. Joyce took it to mean the feathers in a headdress. Two main families of tunes share the name, one in E minor and one in D; this is the E minor one. Its earliest appearance under this title is in the mid-19th century manuscripts of Cork cleric and piper James Goodman, and in Tipperary it was known as "Thresh the Feathers."

Francis O'Neill printed it in 1907, along with a story from Donegal piper Turlogh McSweeney about a stranger whose pipes, laid on the bed, struck up "Toss the Feathers" with nobody touching them. Sligo fiddler Paddy Killoran recorded it in 1937, paired with "Drowsy Maggie."