From glen to glen .......

Today's the day ....................... for Danny Boy

This sculpture by Philip Flanagan in the Derry town of Limavady celebrates the unique connection that the town has with the beautiful melody known throughout the world as 'Danny Boy'.

The story goes that the music was first noted down on a market day in 1851 in Main Street, Limavady, by a local schoolteacher Miss Jane Ross.  She heard the haunting melody being played by blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry, who often played his fiddle at the Limavady Market just outside the Burns and Lairds Shipping Line Office, opposite to where Jane Ross lived at 51 Main Street.  Jane, a keen collector of music, hearing the tune from her window came down to the street and asked him to repeat his performance so that she could note it down.  She sent the manuscript to a friend of hers in Dublin who published it under the title 'An Air from the County Londonderry'.

Many years later songwriter, Frederick Weatherly, created the lyrics to the tune and it became 'Danny Boy'.  It was published in 1913 under that name and it had an immediate appeal across the world.  It has become one of the most performed songs of all time, recorded by some of the world's most notable musicians and artists ...................