Breandán Breathnach, in Folkmusic and Dances of Ireland, says that ‘A very strong case can be made for ascribing a Scots ancestry to our reels.’ Many Irish reels, he says, have known Sottish composers (some mentioned above): Bonnie Kate (Daniel Dow); Moneymusk (Daniel Dow); The Duke of Gordon’s Rant, known in Ireland as Lord Gordon’s Reel (William Marshall); The Perthshire Hunt, known as The Boyne Hunt in Ireland (Miss Stirling of Ardoch).

Breathnach adds that several reels have been ‘borrowed’ from Scotland, and have become ‘naturalised’ after their near 200-year ‘sojourn’ in Ireland, including Rakish Paddy, Colonel McBain, Greig’s Pipes, Lucy Campbell, The Ranting Widow and The Flogging Reel.

Fintan Vallely’s Companion to Irish Traditional Music states that ‘It is likely that the reel originated in France in the early 1500s as the haye. It was being played as ‘reill’ in Scotland in1590 and its modern form was brought to Ireland from there in the late 1700s.’

I’ll just add a couple more tunes: The Mason’s Apron and The Dogs Among the Bushes.