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Hello and welcome back!
This is The Mad Buck - number 207 in the ITMA's Pigot collection. It immediately struck me as odd because despite the lively name, it was in 3/4 time. Going through the melody, it lends itself to speed.
If indeed Bougher Boliagh means Mad Buck, this information is not readily available - the best I can do is "sweet young falcon", "the bowmaker's boiler", or Google Translate's untrustworthy Manx translation of the phrase as "Dairy Cowboy." There is a place in County Cork called Boleagh as well, (and several places called Ballagh) and a few recorded instances of people with the name Bougher in Ireland as early as 1901, so perhaps it was simply a person of a place.
In the absence of any other information, I will trust the second name and my gut, and continue to avoid playing it like a waltz. A mazurka is a bit more believable, but emphasizing the second beat doesn't feel good in all of the measures. It is certainly untenable as a jig. A march makes good sense to me, as does perhaps the most interesting option - a triple-meter hornpipe.
It's also worth noting that this is a very short tune - I think it would do well in a set of its fellows, although I have yet no fellows for it. I'll be keeping a close eye on the 3/4 tunes as they come through, and see if a kindred spirit might be hidden amongst waltzes. I'll also go out on a limb and say that the most dramatic effect would be to slip it into a set of polkas - specifically, after a polka in A.
Due to time constraints, today I am only providing one transcription. I hope that my recording makes clear what I feel is appropriate treatment of the melody.
This is a close study of the transcription in the book - I haven't made any editorial decisions - but in terms of performance guidance, I'd say that if you can't voice lead the last note of the line, leave it out. In my case, I'm generally using a big chord to emphasize the downbeat, which means that the G in that chord comes right out of the F# at the end of the line. If you're playing a monophonic instrument, I'd suggest leaving that last F# out on the first time through the A part, and leaving it out on the last time through the B part.
My recording is a little slapdash, and sadly not up to the speeds that I think the tune would sound best at. I hope that someone eventually brings this one up to pace.
I'm continuing my foray through the two books - I'm almost a quarter of the way through already! When I get through these tunes, I'll be looking for further material - I think it's a little underwhelming to go through resources that are already online, but I'll see what's floating around and what might be worth drawing a bit more attention to.
I hope you enjoy the tune!