Leitrim poet, playwright and friend, Vincent Woods was the inspiration behind this tune.

Three years after the death of poet, broadcaster and translator, Pearse Hutchinson (1927 – 2012), Vincent invited me to Pearse’s house in Rathgar, where he was assembling what would become an archive of Pearse’s work and family history. Among other items, he showed me a tin whistle which had belonged to Pearse’s great friend, Justin O Mahony. Justin had busked in Merchant’s Arch, close to the Ha’penny Bridge on Bachelors Walk in Dublin in the early 1970s, regularly playing this tin whistle. Vincent suggested to me that it would be good to honour Justin by composing a tune in his memory. I composed a reel. As the iron used in the construction of the Ha’penny Bridge came for Creevelea in Co. Leitrim, we decided the tune should be called ‘The Leitrim Iron Reel’. Vincent later wrote the poem of the same name, reproduced here with permission.

I first played this tune publicly at a special ceremony in Maynooth University to mark the formal establishment of The Pearse Hutchinson Archive there. I’m proud that this tune is a small part of that archive and story.