The Piper Through The Meadow Straying
A very nice version of this tune, followed by Galtee Hunt

From the Fiddler's Companion
PIPER THROUGH THE MEADOW STRAYING, THE. Irish, Hornpipe or Set Dance. G Major. Standard. AAB (Joyce): AB (O'Neill). The melody appears in O'Farrell's c. 1800 publications Collection of National Music for the Union Pipes and Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes (c. 1811). Bruce Olson finds what is probably the same tune as a duet called "A piper on the meadows straying" in the ballad opera Zorinski (1795) {music selected and composed by Dr. Samuel Arnold} and that the song with music was published the following year in Walker's Hibernian Magazine. A verse (printed in Charms of Melody, Dublin, c. 1795-1810) begins:
***
A piper on the meadows straying,
Met a simple maid a-maying.
***
Many people will recognize the similarity between sections of the 'B' part of the tune and the popular Christmas carol "Deck the Halls." Learned by Joyce as a child in Co. Limerick, c. 1840. Joyce (Old Irish Folk Music and Song), 1909; No. 131, pgs. 66-67. O'Neill (1915 ed.), 1987; No. 70, pg. 43. Chieftains - "Bells of Dublin" (appears as last tune of "The Wren! The Wren!" medley).

Cheers, S. in Seattle