I like the more recent version of this traditional Irish...(more)
I like the more recent version of this traditional Irish tune that was created by Canadian born, Harry Hibbs (b. September 11, 1942 at Bell Island, d. Toronto, December 21, 1989). Harry was best known for traditional Newfoundland music.
Harry made this variant of the early 19th century ballad to which a young man recounts a dream about a daughter of Daniel O'Connell who appeared to the young man to wake him and Ireland with a sense of pride in being Irish Catholic. Daniel O'Connell was known as the "Liberator of Ireland" [1775-1847]. He was instrumental in gaining political rights for Irish Catholics from the British, and helped to gain Catholic emancipation in 1829.
The tune became popular in the United States when he visited America to encourage Irish Americans to join the abolition cause. Some variants of the tune were adopted into the many Irish songs sung during the War between the States in the 1860s.
In his final years his concern was the Great Famine of Ireland, and it was during this time in which he died.(less)
