Playing in 9/8 is is OK, but what someone said earlier about the tune finishing before you do is very true about slip jigs. It's difficult to know how to stop with some of them.

Right on about keeping practicing until suddenly it's easy and fun. Even 7/8 and 11/8 and 13/8 Bulgarian rhythms aren't too bad eventually - after struggling at first you get in the groove and then it seems as natural as anything!

Slip jigs are indeed very old, and they have their origins in the border pipe tunes (the "border" extending from Cheshire to the Scottish Lowlands) and 3/2 Lancashire and Cheshire hornpipes. There are even extant examples of the same tune in both formats, like the Dusty Miller.

Anahata