G'day GUEST Dodsworth,

If you go up about 5 postings, you'll see that I did ... finally ... recognise the tune as The Star of the County Down:

"- it struck home during a bit of a music session ... the tune is, essentially, a rather modulated version of The Star of the County Down. At least that vindicates my feeling that the tune was Scottish." The relevant reference to that nationality is:

"The oldest copy of this tune is Gilderoy, which appears in Musick for Allan Ramsay's Collection of Scots Songs [Tea Table Miscellany] by Alexander Stuart (c 1726). "

I had been looking ... some 8 years back for, the partially remembered tune (used by a Sydney singer for a new song ...) that "John in Brisbane" was trying to work out on his harp ... and he thought the tune was Irish ... but there is a lot of travelling, by tunes, across that Irish Sea!

Unfortunately for my protracted search, on behalf of "John in Brisbane" ... John drowned in a swimming accident - so I guess he now has an entirely different repertoire for his harp!

Regards,

Bob