"MOONEY'S FOR A PINT" AND "PARKVIEW LADS"
composed by Eddie Dooley
notes courtesy of the Ford family

Eddie Dooley was a fiddler and composer from Co. Waterford who settled in Brooklyn
in the 1950's. He wrote a number of nice tunes, the manuscripts for which reached me via various sources when I still lived in the NYC area. Eddie's tunes are in ITTL folder 23.

The two tunes below reached me within the past year via an elderly Brooklyn Irish lady named Tess Moynihan. I believe she was a distant relative of Eddie's wife. Whatever the relationship, somehow or another she came across some music manuscripts in a long-neglected corner of her basement, saw Eddie's name on them, vaguely recalled it from "days long ago", and made inquiries through some network of friends and relations as to the possibility of getting the music into the hands of someone who (in her words) "could do something nice with them". I'm guessing that in the process of asking around, she may have heard mention of my own efforts to make Eddie's music available to the Irish trad world . . . anyway I'd like to think so.

Tess (who was 90 or 92 at the time she first came across the manuscripts) passed away as the tunes were making their way to me. Unfortunately I never got to speak with her diirectly, but I'm grateful for her interest and persistence. May she rest in peace.

The original tune manuscripts were accompanied by wonderful "notes and commentary" by a cousin of Eddie's named Pete Ford. By a great stroke of luck, Pete Ford was in the Mrs. Moynihan's "research loop", heard the tune titles, remembered Eddie talking about them, and provided details to his son Brendan before his passing in 2016. 

Brendan had the presence of mind to attach his own contact information to the manuscripts before they made their eventual way from Brooklyn to Cape Cod. I immediately got in touch with him - recently retired from the NY Fire Department, still living in Park Slope - and found him to be more than willing to contribute to the "Eddie Dooley Project", as he calls it. His information on the two "new" tunes is transcribed below. (By the way - Brendan believes that other Dooley / Ford family members may have other manuscripts of tunes composed by Eddie and his pals - "they've been sitting around for years because nobody wanted to get rid of them!" - which certainly sounds reasonable.)

As with the previous tunes in the Eddie Dooley file, the notes are the composer's and the chords are mine. P:ABAB means that the tunes will repeat when you play them back. Enjoy!

X:23021
T:MOONEY'S FOR A PINT (jig)
C:E. Dooley
Z:ABC/arr.BB
P:ABAB % will play twice on playback
M:6/8
Q:1/4=160
K:A
P:A
|:c|"A"e2e cBA|"Bm"B2c "F#m"A2F|\
"A"EAc EAc|"D"d2c "E"B2d|
"A"e2e cBA|"Bm"B2c "F#m"A2F|\
"A"EFA "E"Bed|"A"cAA A2:|
%
P:B
|:c|"A"eaa "D"fed|"A"cee "E"dcB|\
"F#m"cAF FEF|"A"ABc "E"B2c|
"A"eaa "C"e=gg|"D"fdf "E"efg|\
"A"ace "D"def|"E"ecB "A"A2:|

X:23022
T:PARKVIEW LADS (reel)
C:E. Dooley
Z:ABC/arr.BB
M:C
Q:1/4=180
P:ABAB % will play twice on playback
R:reel
K:G
P:A
|:D|"G"G2EF GFGA|"G"Bd^cd "Em"edBA|\
"C"GFGA "Em"BddB|"C"efge "D"dcBA|
"G"G2EF GFGA|"G"Bd^cd "Em"edBd|\
"C"efge "G"dBGB|"D"ADFA "G" G3:|
P:B
d|"Em"eB~B2 efge|"Am"abag "D"fagf|\
"Em"eB~B2 edBA|"G"GB"D"AF "C"EFGA|
"Em"Beef "C"gfeg|"D"fd~d2 fdad|\
"G"bg~g2 "D"afdc|"G"Bd"Am"cA "G"G3:|

Link to "liner notes"

The old Parkview Tavern in Brooklyn's Park Slope was a favorite "watering hole" for Eddie and his pals, according to Brendan. "My dad said Eddie wasn't much of a drinker, but he never objected to a night out now and then. I don't think the Parkview was ever what they'd call nowadays a 'session pub', but somehow Eddie and the other musicians frequently managed to find one another for a tune in the back room, usually on Sunday evenings after Mass and dinner. The pub partners were from Galway and Mayo and never objected to a tune or two (or more). I think Eddie told my dad that one of them - Mooney or Garvey, he didn't recall exactly which one - played the flute.  Wives were always welcome but usually - and wisely - seemed to have something else going on, so it was basically "the boys' night out". The musicians always enjoyed hearing new tunes by Eddie or Andy Murphy or Des Conroy - known collectively as 'our composers". Some of those tunes - sadly not all - are preserved in Eddie's manuscripts. "Eddie often spoke lovingly of "the bunch' in later years," said Ford. "I was still a kid in high school, but I remember Eddie and my dad talking about Jimmy Stewart, Tommy Ward, Tommy Greene, Davey Glynn, a bartender named Vinny Bowen . . . and many more that I can't remember. Great memories and always lots of laughs. Eddie called these guys 'the salt of the earth'" - high praise indeed, as Pete Ford told his son.