Danny Boy by Malachy McCourt Page B

blind fiddlers ambled about Ireland, but they clearly monopolized wisdom and old tunes. The story behind the discovery of the Derry air, the Londonderry air if you wish, is sadly, not much of an exception. Legend has it that a blind fiddler may have unwittingly channeled this song to us through an alert Anglo Saxon woman named Jane Ross. But more on Miss Ross in a moment.
    Some evidence suggests that the Londonderry air was composed by one Rory Dall O’Cahan, (1660-1712) an Irish harpist who wandered about Scotland going by the name of Rory Dall Morrison, and eventually became known simply as Rory Dall. Traveling pipers and fiddlers sitting in on sessions and joining in the various feiseanna (musical gatherings) influenced each other musically, thus tracing the exact composer of a centuries-old Irish or Scottish melody is no easy task for even the most determined music scholars.
    We can thank Dr. George Petrie who published the melody in 1855 in Ancient Music of Ireland. Petrie, an enthusiastic aficionado of Irish music gives full credit to Miss Jane Ross of Limavady, County Derry, for placing the piece at his disposal. Ross, educated in music and an avid collector of things musically Irish, claimed to have taken the tune down after hearing it played by an itinerant piper. According to Petrie:
    F OR THE FOLLOWING BEAUTIFUL AIR I HAVE TO EXPRESS MY VERY GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF M ISS J. R OSS, OF L IMAVADY, IN THE COUNTY OF L ONDONDERRY, A LADY WHO HAS MADE A LARGE COLLECTION OF THE POPULAR UNPUBLISHEDMELODIES OF THAT COUNTY, WHICH SHE HAS VERY KINDLY PLACED AT MY DISPOSAL, AND WHICH HAS ADDED VERY CONSIDERABLY TO THE STOCK OF TUNES WHICH I HAD PREVIOUSLY ACQUIRED FROM THAT STILL VERY I RISH COUNTY . I SAY STILL VERY I RISH: FOR THOUGH IT HAS BEEN PLANTED FOR MORE THAN TWO CENTURIES BY E NGLISH AND S COTTISH SETTLERS, THE OLD I RISH RACE STILL FORMS THE GREAT MAJORITY OF ITS PEASANT INHABITANTS; AND THERE ARE FEW, IF ANY, COUNTIES IN WHICH, WITH LESS FOREIGN ADMIXTURE, THE ANCIENT MELODIES OF THE COUNTRY HAVE BEEN SO EXTENSIVELY PRESERVED . T HE NAME OF THE TUNE UNFORTUNATELY WAS NOT ASCERTAINED BY M ISS R OSS, WHO SENT IT TO ME WITH THE SIMPLE REMARK THAT IT WAS “VERY OLD,” IN THE CORRECTNESS OF WHICH STATEMENT I HAVE NO HESITATION IN EXPRESSING MY PERFECT CONCURRENCE .
    Miss Jane Ross left no record of the name of the piper, nor the type of pipes she saw and heard, but archivists and cultural detectives have been able to piece together some clues. Miss Ross was allegedly a composer herself, as all collectors must be, but there is no clear evidence of herwork. However, there is a McCurry family of Ireland that has claimed that an ancestor by the name of Jimmy McCurry was a blind fiddler (not a piper) who played at the fairs at Limavady around the same time Ross lived in that village. On Fair Day many farmers came to town to sell their cattle, sheep, pigs, and chickens, and their wives would often trade knitwear, eggs, and butter, as well as shop for household staples. Their commercial activity then drew all manner of entertainers, such as card sharks, tumblers, singers, fortune tellers, matchmakers, and the like. There was always great excitement on these days, and the assembled musicians garnered enough in offerings to last for several months, if they spent wisely. Of course, drinking was abundant; fights would often break out, with people walloping each other with blackthorn sticks, cudgels and shillaleaghs, a weapon harder than most farmers’ heads. When that activity grew tedious, the participants cleaned up the blood, brushed themselves off and drank to each other’s health. “Slainte Agus Saol Agat,” meaning “health and wealth to you”, they would say, and carry on with song and music. A young man named Matt Talbot, a notorious drunk, would do anything to satisfy his craving, and one day he stole the fiddle of a blind man and pawned it for drink. After he sobered up, Matt felt