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FAMOUS SONGS
stage. He flourished between 1600 and 1700. Samuel Lover, to whom 1 am indebted for con-firmatory information on this subject, gives the original air at the end of his " Irish Poems/1 185 8. Of lC Droigheanan Dunn" which literally is the " Brown Thorn," a most exquisite ballad claimed both by Munster andConnaught,though the latter has undoubtedly the right to It, John Bernard Trotter, private secretary to Charles James Fox, says in a small pamphlet on Irish Music: " It had been conjectured that the era of ' Droigheanan Dunn' was before the intro-duction of Christianity; that it was composed for the celebration of the Baal Thinne, or the midsummer fire, in which the thorn was parti-cularly burnt Be this as it may, it is justly celebrated as one of the sweetest melodies; and whatever be the era of its composition, is an intrinsic proof that we possessed at the earliest periods, a style as peculiar and excellent in music, as our Round Towers prove we did in architecture. The origin of both has perished, but the things themselves remain as incon-testible memorials." It is the same with so many of the songs and ballads still dear to the hearts of the peasantry, if not to others.
Coming to " Molly Astore," which is familiar to the whole world of song-singers through the
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