AndrewH said
O'Carolan greatly admired Corelli, if I remember correctly.

Back then, there really wasn't much of a divide at all between fiddlers and classical players. Until the second half of the 19th century, fiddlers and classical violinists in Scotland and Ireland were mostly the same people, switching back and forth for whatever work was available. It was similar in the US -- the second-ever performance of a Beethoven symphony in North America, in 1813, was not in a major city but rather out on the frontier in Lexington, Kentucky.

  

Thanks Andrew for this information and to all who commented and listened! GregW you had me on "the dots"..oh sheet music

I thought this was a fun tune to play, but as you can see, I need to work on the end a little more especially. I checked wikipedia on O' Carolan and it seems to indicate he was from Ireland. I could have sworn my teacher said he was from Scotland. Sorry for the bad info on him.

I never thought to check this tune online to see how others were playing it until last night. I gave the tune a more classical sound while some YouTube violinists give it a more "folksy" sound adding some double stops and giving the 4/4 time some swing. In one example the player used either a backing track or  a player on guitars that gave it a distinct rhythm.

Here's how peakfiddler played it. I'm jealous.