Speed the Plough

This was one of the most widely played dance tunes of the 19th century, copied into fiddlers' manuscripts all over the north of England and printed in Scotland, Ireland and America. The phrase "God speed the plough" is much older, a wish for good luck that ploughmen sang on Plough Monday in January.

Francis O'Neill wrote that the Armagh violinist John Moorehead composed it in 1799, possibly under the name "The Naval Pillar," though nobody has confirmed the claim. A year later Thomas Morton's play Speed the Plough opened in London and the tune went with it. In English sessions today it is often one of the first reels people learn.