The First of May hornpipe

[Felix]

Does anybody knows if the hornpipe The First of May is related with the events in Chicago on May, 1st 1886 ?

[MTGuru]

You're referring to the Haymarket riots ... No, very doubtful that it's related, except in name. For example, the tune appears with that exact title (as a reel) in Ryan's Mammoth Collection published in 1883, three years before the Haymarket labor events.

More likely the title refers to the traditional May Day celebration or Bealtaine, the pagan festival to welcome in the spring - which pre-dates the labor associations of May 1st by a few thousand years.

See: http://www.ibiblio.org/fiddlers/FIN_FIR ... AY_%5B1%5D

[Felix]

Thanks a lot.
And sorry to have asked this question in the wrong section