The tune which has become known as "Danny Boy" was first printed in 1855 in a collection of Irish music complied by George Petrie who named it the "Londonderry Air" probably because the tune had been given to him by a lady called Jane Ross who lived in Limavady in the County of Londonderry. (Dr George Petrie was among other things a leading scholar and collector of his day - he also led the surveying team who produced the ordnance survey - memoirs of Ireland during 1831-1835 and would have met Jane Ross during his visits to the Limavady area).

Jane Ross is the central character in this fascinating story - the descendant of a Scottish plantation family she lived from 1810-1879 and during her lifetime engrossed herself in music and was always in search of new pieces of music to add to her collection. In 1851 she noted down a tune she heard played in the street not far from where she lived in Main Street. Local tradition would indicate that the fiddler was a Myroe man - Jimmy McCurry. So the tune passed from being orally transmitted, to notes on a music sheet. Miss Ross who must have maintained contact with George Petrie, sent him the tune and so it first appeared in his publication "Ancient Music of Ireland".

Where the tune originated or who composed it still remains a mystery. It may well have been written as some scholars claim as a lament by Rory Dall O'Cahan, a blind harpist, who was a chieftain of the O'Cahan Clan, at the time of the seizure of O'Cahan lands, at the time of the plantation and just prior to the Fight of the Earls. Others claim that the tune is an old Irish tune (Aiscean an Oigfear - The Young Man's Dream) which first appeared in 1796 when Edward Bunting published "A General Collection of Ancient Irish Music".

Edward Bunting

Jimmy McCurry

Either source could be true and as the years passed, and the tune was past from fiddler to harpist and harpist to fiddler subtle changes may have taken place and even then Miss Ross could well have made errors in the transcription, or the musician she heard had made his own arrangement of the Air.

One of the fascinating facets to the mystery lies with the blind harpist, Denis O'Hampsey ) who would have picked up and played many of the local airs in his native Magilligan and would pass these tunes on to Edward Bunting who visited Denis O'Hampsey at his home. Did he give Bunting the music of "A Young Man's Dream" and did this later become the "Londonderry Air" - a slight change during transcription makes one tune very like the other.

So the tune was collected but no one (and many tried) could put words to the music until Fred Weatherly in 1910. His sister-in-law had heard the tune played during the Colorado gold rush. Many Irish immigrants had left these shores for the New World before, during and after the great famine. Among them would have been many talented musicians from in and around the Roe Valley and it may well have been one of these who gave her the tune.

So the story ends and starts again - she sent the music to her brother-in-law in England because she knew he was an avid collector and composer and the last piece of the jigsaw fell into place.

"Danny Boy" was born and since and for many years to come, will be sung by Irishmen and women in all parts of the world - a classic piece of music matched by very poignant lyrics.