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STORIES OF |
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CHAPTER X
"KATHLEEN MAVOURNEEN" AND " KATTY AVOURNEEN"
IT has been said, with more regard for epigram than fact, that this queen amongst Irish songs was born out of its own country, of English parents. But the truth is that though the com-poser, F. N. Crouch, was an Englishman—he might have been Irish if he had chosen, for there are many of that name in the Green Isle —the writer of the words, Mrs. Julia Crawford, was a true daughter of Erin, having been born in County Cavan towards the close of the last century. By taking up her abode at a small town in Wiltshire when quite young, and where she resided for many years, her few biographers have been led into the error of supposing her to be English. Besides " Kathleen Mavourneen," she wrote over a hundred lyrics, mostly Irish in sentiment, and published, with F. N. Crouch as the composer of the music, a volume of " Irish Songs" in 1840. She wrote, says David J. O'Donoghue in his " Dictionary of the Poets of
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