Londonderry Air

The melody first appeared in George Petrie's The Ancient Music of Ireland in 1855, without a title. It came from Jane Ross of Limavady, County Derry, who collected local airs and is said to have taken this one down from a street musician. Descendants of the blind fiddler Jimmy McCurry say he was that player, and another story says the harper Rory Dall O'Cahan heard it in a dream. Neither claim has any evidence behind it.

Many lyrics were set to it before Fred Weatherly's "Danny Boy" (written 1910, set to the tune 1913), including Alfred Perceval Graves' "Would I Were Erin's Apple Blossom" and Katherine Tynan's "Would God I Were the Tender Apple Blossom." Song scholar Virginia Blankenhorn doubts the air is very old and hears it as a sentimental 19th century melody. Uilleann piper Leo Rowsome recorded it in 1926.