File: mcpheehugh06-oh-togannyandfairy_M.mp3
Speakers:
HM – Hughie McPhee
KP – Curator Ken Perlman
KP: You told me a story about your ancestor Toganny McPhee.
HM: Oh yeah. What Toganny meant I don't know, it would be Gaelic for something, probably some kind of a little pet name he had on him. His brother had a piece of land, and this little Toganny got another chunk of land. But in order to lay claim to it you had to live on it a certain period of time. You couldn't just claim it and go away and leave it. So there was a spring there and he was gettin' his water out, and he went one day and just laid around there, and he was a piper. He was gettin a bucket of water, and he laid down beside the spring, and he fell asleep. And he dreamt that there was a fairy came hoppin' out of the spring. They were great for fairies. And the fairy came out of the spring and played him this tune, on a little set of bagpipes, I guess. So he played a tune and they called it Toganny=s Reel.
KP: Wasn't there more to this story, about someone in a later generation who had great musical talent..
HM: That was – Toganny would be her uncle. She married Angus McPhee, Archie's son, Archie and Christina MacLean's son: one of them was Angus. And Angus married Annabelle MacPhee Pitt. And they had a son, and he was a little fellow in the cradle. And Annabelle's brother used to come up, and he'd sit down and he'd jig a tune. And the little fellow would jig the tune right after him. He was full of music – Every tune he ever heard, he had it: just one turn – One turn by him, and he had it. He died; they didn't know what killed him, and they figured that he was too smart to live, that he was only puts on earth to become a human, and he was taken back for some purpose; that God had a purpose for him.