Danny Boy

Danny Boy is built on one of the most mysterious of Irish melodies: the Londonderry Air. In 1851, a certain Jane Ross heard a travelling fiddler playing the tune in the streets of Limavady, Ireland, and noted it down for a friend in Dublin who was seeking to preserve ancient Irish music. Tradition sometimes attributes the melody to the Celtic harpist Rory Dall O'Cahan, who lived in Scotland in the late seventeenth century, though this remains uncertain.

The lyrics, however, are the work of an Englishman. The solicitor and lyricist Frederic Weatherly first wrote the words to Danny Boy in 1910, set to an entirely different melody. It was in 1913, after his Irish sister-in-law sent him a copy of the Londonderry Air, that he adapted his words to fit the metre and rhythm of the tune.

The text of Danny Boy carries a certain ambiguity: it specifies neither the nature of the bond between the narrator and Danny, nor the reason for his departure, which allows it to function as a universal lament on separation, death and the enduring power of love. This universality explains its adoption by the Irish diaspora the world over, and its near-ubiquitous presence at funerals, wakes and memorial services. On the bagpipes, the melody lends itself equally well to solo slow airs and pipe band arrangements.