Danny Boy—The Mystery Returns! , or,
The Young Man's Dream

by Michael Robinson

I have finally found Irish words for Aisling an Óigfhir ("The Young Man's Dream"). The place I found them was in James Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy, published in 1831. This was one of the first published collections of Irish poetry, and contains many well-known Irish songs.

In his notes on Aisling Gheal, a similar song, Brian O'Rourke points out:

For most people who have been through the Irish educational system, the word 'aisling' will connote a poem or song in which the poet sees — or dreams that he sees — a beautiful woman who turns out to be Ireland lamenting her woes. It is not generally realized that his type of political aisling developed out of an earlier non-political kind, which was the Irish version of the French reverdie, — a song-type in which the poet is approached, in pastoral surroundings, by a beautiful otherworldly woman who symbolizes spring and Love. There are about a dozen examples of the reverdie to be found in the Irish folksong tradition, and 'Aisling Gheal' is a clearer specimen than most. In view of the fact that it is not a political aisling, it is somewhat strange to find, in the second half of the first verse, a quasi-political reference which is not developed, and which has no obviously place in what is basically the account of a dream about love. In his Irish Minstrelsy, Hardiman published a related song, 'Aisling an Óigfhir', in which the corresponding lines refer to birdsong, fish-filled streams, and honey-making bees, — all more appropriate to the context.

Brian O'Rourke
Pale Rainbow/An Dubh in Bhan: Gaelic Folksong with English translations
Irish Academic Press, 1990
pp. 80-81

Hardiman's book is published in a rather odd, barely legible, Gaelic typeface (actually one of the first Gaelic typefaces to be used in Ireland). The poems are accompanied by translations into English which are more to the taste of the early 19th century than to that of today. In the introduction to the facsimile reprint of 1971 by the Irish University Press, Máire Mhac a tSaoi describes "the English 'poetical' translations supplied with Hardiman's Irish text, versions so remote from the original, so bowdlerized and drawing-roomized out of all semblance of reality or genuine feeling that it is a positive—and supremely unrewarding—effort to plough through them".

The following reproduces the words exactly as published (possibly with a few typing mistakes). Both the Irish and the English texts have some eccentric spellings. The verse structure of the translation is not the same as the original, but very little has been omitted from the translation (except, one might be unkind enough to say, a feeling for poetry).

I've now added a MIDI version of Bunting's arrangement, for people who would like to hear the original tune. This includes the bass line published by Bunting, which is not shown in the musical score above, except implicitly by chord names. It is not known whether the bass line was actually played by Hempson, but most authorities think that it was composed by Bunting. Only the melody lines in the Bunting collection were as originally played (we think), although in some cases Bunting has put them into different keys.

The Mystery Returns!

Well, just when I thought that the mystery was solved, new information turned up, so now a new mystery has appeared! After all that work showing that the tune Aisling an Óigfhir is indigenous to a particular area of Co. Derry, it has turned up about half a century earlier in another country!

Some time after I posted the article about Danny Boy on our website, I was contacted by Bruce Olson, who is quite knowledgeable on such topics. He provided me with the information given below. It seems there are English words to The Young Man's Dream which appear in an 18th century Scottish manuscript (when Denis Hempson was only middle-aged!). The tune appears to have been in circulation in both countries, which is not uncommon. This new set of words is not a translation from the Irish words given above, but the theme of the composition is basically the same. If the English words are older than the Irish words (and the publication date doesn't necessarily indicate this to be true), in which country did the tune originate?

If the words are of English-language origin, that might indicate that the tune originated perhaps in Lowland Scotland. (Wouldn't that be a shock!) Whether the text first originated in Irish or English, and was then translated into the other language, is difficult to ascertain. It's even possible that the two were independent compositions. However, I think this is unlikely. Just one person singing could leave a version, or a title, in the tradition in a particular area. Because the reference to the English version is earlier, we must consider the possibility that it is the original.

Another possibility occurs to me, though. The words shown below have the style of the Irish school-master poets of the 18th century. (Some of the components of this style being: some influence from folk material, allusions to classical Greek and Roman mythology, and the showing-off of ornate vocabulary.) In the early 18th century most such poets composed in Irish, but as time went by many more such compositions appeared in English.

The tune appears to have been in oral circulation in Co. Derry until at least Miss Ross's time. Because of the "Plantation of Ulster" in Elizabethan times, there was an English-speaking population in place fairly early. Hence it would be quite plausible for a local school-master to compose English-language words to a local tune. Given the close ties between Ulster and Lowland Scotland, it would then be plausible for the song to be transmitted to a friend in Scotland (perhaps even by means of the same MS still in existence).

Or, or it could be argued, those same close ties would make it easy to transfer a Scottish song to Ulster. However, I think the song is of Irish descent, for the following reasons:

• The style of the song is more typical of Irish songs (in English) of slightly later date, and related to Irish-language poetry.
• The style of the tune is very Irish. Note that Anne Geddes Gilchrist (mentioned above), who first suggested modifying the rhythm of Londonderry Air, was a Scot herself, and very knowledgeable about Scottish music as well.
• The rhymes "easy"-"daisies", "ease"-"shade", "dame"-"dream" indicate an Irish accent.
• The early transmission in Scotland seems to be in written form among amateur folk-song collectors, while in Ireland it is collected from oral tradition.
• There is a set of Irish words, given by Hardiman, in the reverdie form, which is an old French poetic form pre-dating the political aisling form used in 18th century Irish poetry. French influence on Irish poetry took place during the Middles Ages when Norman-French families were granted estates in Ireland by the English crown.
• It is fairly rare to find English songs translated into Irish, but English translations of Irish songs are quite common.

The following information from Bruce Olson describes the manuscript version in question:

The Young Man's Dream, Scots MS of the 1740's. MS was rebound at one time (and one page replaced at wrong place) and there is some loss of text from reduced margins.

A recast version of this song is attributed to James Tytler, in The Scots Musical Museum, #126. The tune there is minor mode version of SMM #146, the earliest known copy of the Irish tune The Young Man's Dream. The manuscript text below was obviously inspired by 17th century Loves fancy or The Young Mans Dream as the broadside of 1663-74 entitles it. The 17th century English tune is in C. M. Simpson's The British Broadside Ballad and Its Music, 1966, as She lay all naked in her bed, Simpson's #425, or his #182, both 4/4 tunes. Love's Fancy or the Young Man's Dream is an expansion of a song found in Wit and Drollery, 1656. A few related early songs are (1) Last night I thought my true love I caught in Percy Folio MS: Loose and Humorous Songs, and in Folger Lib. MSS V.a. 339, V.a 345, both of c1625-30; (2) I dreamed my love lay in her bed (or Loves Dream in 'Merry Drollery') in 'Percy Folio MS, Loose ..', and BL MS Harl. 7332; (3) Now ffye on Dreams, 'Percy Folio MS, Loose..' and, c 1625-30, in Folger MS V.a. 345. Maiden's Dream, G. R. Kinlock, Ballad Book, p. 37.

Other copies of the tune for the Irish song are: The Young Man's Dream, Bunting's first collection, #17, 1796: The Young Man's Dream; Himes New Selection... Irish Airs, p. 6, c 1800: Young Mans Dream; Riley's Flute Melodies, #64, New York (1814): The Young Man's Dream [for Moore's song, As a beam o'er the face of the waters]; Moore/ Stevenson A Selection of Irish Melodies, 1st issue, #11, 1807: Oh! When that mild eye is beaming. Air-The Young Man's Dream; Crosby's Irish Musical Repository, p. 259, 1808: The Young Man's Dream Irish; O'Farrell's Pocket Companion for the Irish or Union Pipes, II, p. 44. (1811?): O'Neill's Music of Ireland, #382, gives a simplified copy of Bunting's version.

MS text:



One night I Dream'd I lay most easy
down by a murmering river side
whose lovly banks were clad with [daisies
and the streams did gently glide

It was all around me and greite ont
spreading branches were display'd
-]lill interwoven in due order
--] soon became a pleasant shade

--]ese sudden raptures of Delusion
--]lull'd with slumber sweet ease
I thought I saw my lovely Susan
thro' the green and the blooming [?]hades

Th]e moon gave light I could Discern
H]ow my goddes walked along
a]ttended by each killing Charmer
W]hilst the fair one sweetly sang

Oh] friendly shades of night convey me
U]nto Adonice my sweet Joy
Y]e Gods and Goddesses pray ye guide me
-]not that dear and that Darling boy

-]r noisy winds gave over blowing
--]eare while that I may hear
--]sweet adonice be a loving
--] the groves or the valleys near

-] she set down and turn'd her sponnet
which made the valleys to echo round
which wack'd the early lark and linnet
which might engage a monarchs Crown

O then I fancies she drew near me
with a melting and Blushing air
and by her countenance seem'd to fear [me]
and soon repented that she came there

Then I arose and Gently ease'd [?] her
whilest my Charmer swowned away
and in my armes I straight convey'd h[er
to the Arbor where I lay

She soon recovered her sence and said sir
why will uou kill me I am undone
why will you smother a harmless maid
prey let me go for I must be gone

Then in my arms with amorous kisses
I carressed the sobing dame
and in the midst of all thes blisses
I woke and found it to be Dream

I asked Bruce whether there was any other music of Irish origin in the MS, or what else was in it, and with characteristic thoroughness, he replied:

Poorly described in NLS Catalog as songs copied from Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany and Herd's Scots Songs. Many songs are in TTM, but usually with different titles. The MS is considerably older than Herd's collections. One Scots song in MS is from an Edinburgh ballad opera of 1738.

Irish songs in the MS:

folio/ opening line/ title+tune (if any designated)/comments

• 50. Molly Molly my dear honey/ Molly, Molly/ 16 verses Undoubtably Irish, short version given with tune Young Man's Dream in Scots Musical Museum, #126, a minor mode version of the Irish tune Young mans dream, SMM #146, for which see below at f. 85. This "Molly" song is much later in the Scottish Mansfield/ Elizabeth St. Clair MS without tune direction.
• 57. Betw]een Cashiel and Twulish [?]/ Captain Dellany's Ramble [He gets maid pregnant in unnamed county of Ireland; she answers with warning to other maids 'but trust not to cony, take warning by me.'] This would seem to be a translation of the well-known Irish song Idir Caiseal agus Durlas ("Between Cashel and Thurles").
• *63. Hard was my lot for to be shot/ The Pearl of the Irish Nation/ [shot by Cupid's arrow, praising his love, with answer, finally resulting in marriage for a total of 17 verses. See D. O'Sullivan's edition of Bunting's MS, Part IV, # 67, for tune and Gaelic song. Note that this is partially quoted by Joyce, OIFMS, p. 25, with tune. Slip song copy BL-Roxburghe Collection, III 468 [RB8 184] Hardiman's Irish Minstrelsy has a song Ta Saigheada agus Cnead ag Dúbailt am shlad ("An arrow and a sigh are doubled at my ravaging"), translated as Wounded by Cupid's Burning Dart.
• *82. My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here/ The Highland Mans farewel to portmore/ 12 verses. Combination praise of Portmore, and soldier's leave taking of sweetheart. Scots fragment is called My hearts in the highlands (Scots Musical Museum) and Irish fragment is Bonny Portmore (O'Boyle's The Irish Song Tradition. Tune also in Bunting's 2nd collection, 1809). Song in chapbook of 1746 calls for tune My heart's in the highlands, and I had a query to Jack Campin on SCOTS-L as to whether he's seen a tune of this title. Jack Campin hasn't found any tune My heart's in the Highlands in 18th century Scots musical MSS, so that title, I suspect, is just another name for Bonny Portmore. It's not obvious that the tune in Scots Musical Museum is the correct Scots one for the song. C. K. Sharpe gave a later revised (and poorer) stall copy called The Strong Walls of Derry in Additional Illustrations to the Scots Musical Museum.]
• *86v. Last night I dreamed I lay most easy/ The Young Man's Dream (The song in question)
• *104v. I am a weaver to my trade/ The Weaver & ye servent Lass This is a version of The Weaver and his Sweetheart, #123, Holloway and Black's Later English Broadside Ballads, and compare there #38, the other half of the 17th century, Will the Weaver and Charity the Chambermaid. The version here is long because a setting in Ireland is introduced, at the end. Roy Palmer's article The Weaver in Love, FMJ, 1977, prints several versions. Will and Charity is since published in Pepys Ballads, III, 132, 1987. I don't think Palmer put things together right. Will and Charity was not split in the 18th century; two separate pieces were combined to form the 17th century Will and Charity. See Bagford Ballads, I, p. 148, Beauties Warning-piece where the 'other half' is slightly revised, and is followed by a moral, an early version of Death and the Lady. You can hear a late version of this as the Weaver and the factory maid done by Steeleye Span. Collected as traditional song, but collectors rarely printed any of it. I think Ibby Damsel in Sharp-Karples 'Appalachian' collection is a hopelessly corrupt American fragment.
• *122. Bon]ny maidens you all both great and small/ Captain McKean [Irish song older and bawdier than Black Joak. Tune in Neals' Dublin collection, c 1724, their dance collection, c 1726 and in Coffey's ballad operas Beggar's Wedding, 1729 and Merry Cobler, 1735. George Colman wrote a new comic song to tune, printed 1803 and later, The face of brave Captain Megan, was as broad as a big frying pan. Tune without a song is in 3rd issue of Moore/ Stevenson's A Selection of Irish Melodies (1810). Tune is in most recent edition of Works of O'Carolan.]
• 131v. As I went out on a morning so gay/ Johnny & Molly's Garland [with answer, 28 verses. The familiar 11th verse goes "I cannot go home I will not go home/ till I taste of the oyl of the barley/ I'll tarry all night wt my hearts d(elight)/ and go home in the morning early." (Cf. Good Ale for my Money, Rox. Ballads I, 412) Recurrent burden "follow her over the mountains," unnecessary when they finally wed. Tune, I will follow you over the mountain, in O'Sullivan's edit. of Bunting's MSS, JIFSS, 1927-?, and in Bunting's second collection. Also as The Oil of Barley in O'Farrell's Pocket Companion, II. This is not related to the English Oil of Barley/ Stingo]
• 142v. Draw near you country men and I'll tell you/ The moan of the Irishmen that was hung for K. J[ames"?]/ 11 verses [Cf. O'Sullivan, Songs of the Irish, "The Gaol of Clonmel," p. 153] Another well-known Gaelic song, Príosún Chluain Meala.
• 177. Belling,... /Rakes of Mallow [here, as late copies- 8 verses of 4 lines, but in Charmer, 1765 it is 4 verses of 8 lines, fitting the whole tune, without a chorus. No 18th cent. copy I've seen has a chorus. One of the bawdy 4 line verses later dropped, so a nonsense chorus had to be added for the 2nd half of the tune.]
• *186v. Dear Catholick sister son of great M[ars]/ Teagues Ramble [to Hyde Park]. 20 verses/ [goes to Dublin then London and his adventures and see strange sights. Variant of the Irish tune of this title (first found in B. Cooke's Cooke's Selection.., c 1795) is The Irish Lady, Dancing Master, 1651. Cf C. M. Simpson's Dear Catholic Brother (Poor Catholic Brother in Stanford-Petrie collection) for opening line imitating this, but tune is different. Broadside copies at Harvard. This seems to be source of an American nonsense song known as Nottamun/Nottingham Town]

So you can see that there is a lot of other Irish material in the MS, including some relating to the Gaelic song tradition. Therefore, this supports the contention that The Young Man's Dream is Irish in origin. What about the 17th century Loves fancy or The Young Mans Dream in the broadside of 1663-74, as mentioned by Bruce? Was it also inspired by the Irish song? This is not impossible. I maintain, however, that the concept of a young man falling asleep and dreaming about a beautiful girl is not unusual. The English words are not a translation of the Irish words; they have been influenced by the earlier song. My guess is that the anonymous poet attempted to set the English words to the Irish tune.

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