The term “star” is often used as a euphemism for a beautiful woman, and this melody likely dates back to at least the late 19th century. Francis O’Neill (1913) notes it as one of the first reels learned by William F. Hanafin, a fiddler and uilleann piper from Callinafercy, Kilcoleman, County Kerry, born in 1875. Hanafin later emigrated to Massachusetts as a young man. O’Neill himself learned the tune from James O’Brien, a piper from County Mayo who visited Chicago—where O’Neill served on the police force—in 1876. O’Neill described O’Brien as “a neat, tasty Irish piper of the Connacht school of close players,” noting that although O’Brien’s Union pipes were small, “they were sweet and musical.”