The Irish ballad of beauty and mystery

The ballad Danny Boy perhaps perfectly reflects the pain of the diaspora from Ireland and has become an Irish anthem. But the tune’s origins are obscure, its lyrics a mystery.

Interestingly, the lyrics weren’t written by an Irishman, but English lawyer Frederic Edward Weatherly, who wrote two stanzas of the song in 1910 without a tune to go with it. How the lyrics were set to music is hotly debated. Some say that in 1912, Weatherly’s Irish sister-in-law sent him the music to Londonderry Air. Others say that Weatherly’s sister-in-law was living in Ouray, Colorado, and set Frederic’s poem to the tune of Londonderry Air herself.

Londonderry Air is an ancient tune with roots in Ireland and Scotland, perhaps even Celtic origins. The tune was first published in 1851 by Jane Ross, who heard it played by a blind traveling fiddler. Before the tune became famous as Danny Boy, it had been arranged many times as Londonderry Air with many different lyrics, usually patriotic.

Even so, Danny Boy’s well-known lyrics continue to intrigue.

For one thing, we can only speculate about the narrator, who says that Danny Boy must leave for a long while, but the narrator must stay, pledging to wait for him always, even to death. While the song is a favorite of tenors, the lyrics can be read as a woman longing for her beloved, a father lamenting his son, or even a paean to a sibling. In the second to last verse, we know it is not the mother singing because she has been brought low by Danny Boy’s absence.

In addition, nowhere in the lyrics does it say why Danny Boy must leave. Some say the ‘pipes calling across the glen’ suggest that Danny Boy participated in an uprising. In some versions, notably that of Sinead O’Connor, the verses are changed to be explicitly political: Danny Boy is fighting for the freedom of Ireland.

Finally, the longing for Danny Boy changes in the last two stanzas. It becomes clear that Danny Boy has been so long gone that he is feared dead. Only in heaven will they all be reunited.