The secret history of modern Irish folk songs

Because of emigration, it is inevitable that there have been many Irish influences on American folk songs and ballads but the reverse is also the case. Many of the classic ballads regarded as Irish were actually written elsewhere.

There is a Patrick Murphy’s Meadow but it is in Kings Cove, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland where the song was written in the 1930s by JM Devine. I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen was written by Thomas P Westendorf, a teacher in Indiana who wrote the song for his wife, whose name was Julia. My Wild Irish Rose and When Irish Eyes are Smiling are attributed to Chauncey Alcott, a native of Buffalo, New York.

Another slightly non-Irish song is Kathleen Mavourneen. The poem was written around 1837 by Julia Crawford. Very little is known of her life. She was born in Cavan where her father was a British soldier and she was educated in Wiltshire in England. When it was set to music, it became one of the most famous songs in America from the 1840s onwards.

The music was composed by Frederick Crouch and popularised by  soprano Catherine Hayes. The song was her signature tune and she is said to have sung it for Queen Victoria and over 500 guests in Buckingham Palace in 1849. As a result of her touring the song became popular in America particularly with soldiers during the American Civil War. It is so much associated with that time that it features in many films about the Civil War, particularly Gettysburg. 

It gave its name to a number of films from 1906 right up to 1940. One of them, in 1919, starred the femme fatale of the silent screen, Theda Bara. The film led to protests by Irish and Catholic groups who objected to its portrayal of Ireland and to the fact that a Jewish actress played the part of an Irish colleen.

Fox Corporation dropped the film after several riots and bomb threats. Arising from the line, “It may be for years and it may be forever,” the practice of buying goods on hire purchase was often referred to as buying on the Kathleen Mavourneen. 

Frederick Crouch, who set the poem to music, had no connections with Ireland. He was an English musician, born in Marylebone, London in 1808. He played the cello in the King’s Theatre and also in St Paul’s Cathedral and he emigrated to the United States in 1849. He had composed the music before he emigrated because at that stage, Catherine Hayes was already singing the song.

Crouch did not make any money from his composition as he sold the rights to the original music for £10. He settled in Richmond, Virginia, one of the Southern States and when the Civil War started, he joined the Army of the Confederacy, where he played the trumpet in an army band.

 

Following the war, he travelled much of America where he tried a number of occupations including conducting, singing and teaching, none with any great degree of success. He composed two operas neither of which were successful and none of his songs matched Kathleen Mavourneen.

Frederick Crouch, composer of Kathleen Mavourneen,  retired to Baltimore, Maryland, where he died on August 18, 1896 – 116 years ago this week.