The Londonderry Air
The Londonderry Air is one of the best-known Irish melodies in the world. Collected in County Londonderry and first published in 1855, it is the tune of "Danny Boy" and has carried dozens of other lyrics, hymns and arrangements.
- Origin
- County Londonderry, Ireland
- Collected by
- Jane Ross of Limavady
- First published
- 1855, George Petrie, The Ancient Music of Ireland
- Best-known words
- "Danny Boy", by Frederic Weatherly
Where the tune came from
Jane Ross of Limavady collected the melody and sent it to the antiquarian George Petrie, who published it in 1855 in The Ancient Music of Ireland as an anonymous air, with a note crediting her. Ross never learned the tune's name and described it only as very old.
Scholars have since traced its roots. Hugh Shields (1974) linked it to "Aislean an Oigfear" ("The Young Man's Dream"), which Edward Bunting took down in 1792 from the harper Denis Hempson, and Brian Audley (2000) showed that the tune's high section derives from a refrain in that air. Anne Geddes Gilchrist suggested in 1934 that the singer Ross heard used heavy rubato, and that the tune may originally have been in 3/4 rather than common time. Stories linking it to particular fiddlers or harpers have no historical evidence.
How it got its name
Alfred Perceval Graves was the first to set new verses to the tune after Petrie, in the late 1870s, and his Irish Song Book of 1894 was the first to call it the "Londonderry Air".
Danny Boy and other words
The most famous words for the tune are Frederic Weatherly's "Danny Boy", written in 1910 and set to the melody in 1913. Other settings include the hymns "I Cannot Tell" and "I Would Be True", "In Derry Vale", and Dottie Rambo's gospel song "He Looked Beyond My Fault", first recorded by The Rambos in 1968.
The tune today
The Londonderry Air is often called the unofficial anthem of Northern Ireland and is played as its victory anthem at the Commonwealth Games. Composers and players have arranged it many times, from Percy Grainger's settings and Fritz Kreisler's 1922 violin arrangement to solo guitar versions by Ted Greene (1977) and Pat Metheny (2024).
It is a lovely slow air for beginners: try it on the tin whistle or fiddle.