"Danny Boy" is a traditional song, with lyrics written by English lawyer Frederic Weatherly in 1910, and set to the traditional Irish melody of "Londonderry Air" in 1913.
History
In 1910, in Bath, Somerset, the English lawyer and lyricist Frederic Weatherly initially wrote the words to "Danny Boy" to a tune other than "Londonderry Air". An alternative story is that his sister-in-law Margaret Enright Weatherly sent him a copy of "Londonderry Air" in 1913 and Weatherly modified the lyrics of "Danny Boy" to fit its rhyme and meter. A different story has Jess singing the air to Weatherly in 1912 with different lyrics. Yet another story is that Frederic did not set the poem to any tune, but that, in 1933, Margaret, who, with her husband Edward Weatherly, was living at the Neosho mine near Ouray, Colorado in the US, set it to the "Londonderry Air" which she had heard as a child in California played by her father and other Irish railway workers.
Weatherly gave the song to the vocalist Elsie Griffin, who made it one of the most popular songs of the new century. Ernestine Schumann-Heink produced the first recording of "Danny Boy" in 1915.
Jane Ross of Limavady is credited with collecting the melody of "Londonderry Air" in the mid-19th century from a musician she encountered.
Lyrics
The 1913 lyrics by Frederic E. Weatherly:
Meaning
There are various conjectures about the meaning of "Danny Boy". Some interpret the song to be a message from a parent to a son going off to war.
The 1918 version of the sheet music with Weatherly's printed signature included alternative lyrics ("Eily Dear"), with the instructions that "when sung by a man, the words in italic should be used; the song then becomes "Eily Dear", so that "Danny Boy" is only to be sung by a lady". Nonetheless, it is unclear whether this was Weatherly's intent and it is common practice for exactly the same lyrics to be used when sung by both women and men.
Usage
Percy Grainger's Irish Tune from County Derry adapts the Danny Boy/Londonderry Air melody for wind ensemble in 1918. The song is popular for funerals; but the National Catholic Reporter wrote in 2001 that it "cannot be played during Mass." German poet and playwright Bertold Brecht wrote an alternative version of the lyrics in 1920 and called it Reminiscence of Marie A. Erinnerung an die Marie A.