'Boys of Bluehill' has a (sort of) Chicago connection

This from Andrew Kuntz' Fiddler's Companion (scroll down to the song). :

BOYS OF BLUEHILL, THE (Buacailli Ua Cnoc-Gorm). AKA ‑ "Beaux of Oak Hill," “Boys of North Tyne,” "Lads of North Tyne," "Silver Lake" (Pa.), "Jenny Baker," "Lonesome Katy,” “Two Sisters,” “Twin Sisters." Irish, Reel or Hornpipe. D Major. Standard tuning. AABB (most versions): AA’B (Moylan). [Capt. Francis] O’Neill (who said the melody was unknown to Chicago Irish musicians beforehand) had the tune from a seventeen year old fiddler named George West, who, though gifted musically, was somewhat indigent and did not own a fiddle. He had formed a symbiotic musical relationship of sorts with one O’Malley, who did own a fiddle and who eked out a meagre living playing house parties despite the loss of a finger from his left hand. O’Malley, however, invariably could only make it to midnight before he became too inebriated to bow, at which time West took over his fiddle and finished the night’s engagement. “Thus lived the careless, improvident but talented Georgie, until an incident in his life rendered a trip to the far West advisable." Early American recorded versions on 78 RPM’s give the title as “Boys from the Hill” and “Slieve Gorm.” Fiddler Tommy Dandurand (Chicago/Kankakee, Illinois) recorded the melody as “Beau of Oak Hill” in 1927, and it is this title that is familiar to many American fiddlers not influenced directly by Irish repertoire (of which “Boys of Bluehill” is a staple hornpipe).

"The tune is perhaps older in American tradition than in Irish," adds Kuntz, "although its provenance is unknown, although in American tradition it is almost always played as a reel rather than a hornpipe." He cites a printed version as “The Two Sisters” in George P. Knauff’s Virginia Reels (1839) and variants from southwestern Virginia, North Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and the Ozarks. An Ohio variant dates to 1842.

Recordings:

• On YouTube hear a funky guitar version by a British expat living in France, "heavily inspired by -- copied from -- the version by the Breton guitarist Dan Ar Braz." Very nice.
  
• Also on YouTube, a 1977 clip of James Galway and Matt Molloy playing it on TG4 television in Ireland.
  
• And, at Archive.org, a 78rpm recording of Leo Rowsome on Uilleann pipes and Frank O'Higgins on fiddle playing a medley of "Boys of Bluehill" and "Fisher's Hornpipe" (actually another tune called "Minstrel's Fancy") in Dublin in 1933.

There's a fascinating biography of Captain O'Neill in the program notes for "The Police Chief Who Saved Irish Music" on WTTW public television of Chicago. Lengthy excerpts available online from Irish Minstrels and Musicians (1913).