The Donagh MacDonagh ‘Ireland is Singing’ Ballad Collection

Donagh MacDonagh (1912-1968) was the son of Tipperaryman Thomas MacDonagh (1878-1916), Irish poet and playwright, who lectured in English here at UCD. The proud Thomas, according to the poet Anthony Cronin in a review of Donagh’s poetry collection Dublin made me and no little town “could often be seen, kilted and smiling, wheeling baby Don around Dublin in his pram; behaviour unheard of, for a father, in those days”. Thomas wrote letters to his infant son, one saying “I must myself formally congratulate you on having such a mother. You are the most fortunate child in the world, as I am the most fortunate man. Please God we three are going to have a long and happy and loving life together.” Unfortunately, fate had something else entirely in mind — Thomas was also a political activist and revolutionary, a signatory of the Proclamation of the Irish Republic and one of the seven leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. He was executed at the age of thirty-eight. Tragedy struck again when four year old Donagh was orphaned the following year when his mother drowned in the sea at Skerries.

Despite this inauspicious start in life, Donagh prospered, going on to become Justice MacDonagh and, much like his father before him, a writer. He was also a poet, presenter, broadcaster, ballad librettist, songwriter, playwright and – an avid ballad collector. Such was his passion that he hosted a popular show on Radio Éireann called ‘Ireland is Singing’ which, according to radio schedules in newspapers of the time, ran from December 1939 to December 1941, with a break of about six months in 1940 when Donagh presented a different programme.

Listeners were encouraged to send in requests and Donagh would have a resident guitarist and two guest singers perform some of them. Often there was no indication of the tune, others were to be performed ‘to the air of’ a well-known ballad, and occasionally sheet music or a score was included. Letters poured in from all over the country, resulting in a sizable collection ranging from popular to seldom-heard and even obscure local songs. Donagh donated the collection to the Irish Folklore Commission and they are now preserved for posterity, in the archives of the National Folklore Collection. It consists of 825 ballads in total (including variations of the same song) in three boxes, and a ten-volume set of copies.

It’s a broad collection, representative of the many varieties of ballads. Largely they are a vehicle for the continued remembrance of important events, but they are also a useful source of what Irish society was like at various periods in our history – what they feared, enjoyed, and considered important enough to immortalise in song. Notable happenings, rebel and immigration songs are mingled in with romance and epic sporting clashes. A couple mark the sinking of the Titanic; another two reflect the public outrage surrounding a particularly notorious murder in Clones in 1903. Murders and other gruesome events are often the subject of ballads, whether they are known at a local or international level.

 Gravestone of Bridget Gayer, who’s murder in 1909 by William Scanlon was the subject of several ballads. Photographer: Tom Munnelly, May 1991. National Folklore Collection, UCD

Apart from this ‘lest we forget’ variety, which also includes heroic figures and political upheaval, some are concerned with very ordinary occupations but which now, being long extinct, are a glimpse into how our ancestors lived day to day. It might be an occupation such as a ‘Carman’ (horse-and-cart haulier), or harvest rituals, attending fairs, or natural disasters, such as ‘The Moving Bog’. There are also warning tales, like ‘My Wonderful Wife’ (who is ridiculed throughout) composed by the sender Tom Hehir of Clare, an 88 year old balladeer who admits he never married. He requested it be played to the air of his favourite ballad ‘The Galbally Farmer’. He used to go next door to listen to the radio every night, and he especially liked ‘Ireland is Singing’. A listener from Portarlington even composed a ballad called ‘Ireland is Singing’, to be sung to the air of ‘Kinnegad Slashers’.

Example of a ballad from the collection, which also includes a printed version, selling for 2d. Donagh MacDonagh Collection, National Folklore Collection, UCD

It’s worth remembering that in the early nineteenth century printed news sources were scarce, and the street ballad singer occupied a prominent place at fairs and other public gatherings. The Schools Collection has many entries which include ballads. Commemorative ballads abound, such as ‘Martin Savage’ who died in action on Ashtown Road in 1920, and ‘The Ambush at Bovain, Co. Tyrone’, not forgetting ‘The Women of Easter Week’. Traitor’s names are damned for eternity while comrades and friends are exalted. This is a verse from a ballad in Donagh’s collection about the Battle of Oulart Hill in 1798:

But blood for blood without remorse I’ve taken at Oulart’s hollow
I’ve laid my lover’s clay-cold corpse where I so soon will follow
And ever drear I wander near noon night and morning early
With saddened heart whene'er I hear the wind that shakes the barley

For a more straightforward romantic ballad in the collection, how about this verse from a tribute to ‘Ellen of Ennistymon-O’ –

This damsel fine is five feet nine,
Waxwork can’t be neater O
The cedar tree you must agree
It never grew yet straighter O
If it be so, and she won’t bestow
One glance on Barney Reilly O
The coffin I’m sure must be the cure
And buried in Ennistymon O

And here is a verse from a humorous ditty called ‘The Female Whistling Craze’ – 

She never calls me by my name but treats me like a log
And now she always whistles me as if I were a dog
She goes from sunset until morn, from breakfast time to bed
And when she kneels to say her prayers she whistles them instead

The collection is also a glimpse into the era. Many letters were written on half sheets, or the back of receipts. One lovely piece of ephemera is a brightly coloured lithograph of a Gold Flake cigarette advertisement. Another is on the back of a memo from the Irish Land Commission, and this one is on an old HMV invoice:

 Donagh MacDonagh Collection, National Folklore Collection, UCD

Pages were held together with straight pins, excess stamp paper, or even sewn together with thread. At the time of donation, they were mostly paper-clipped together, and these have rusted over the years (anyone who would like a masterclass in rusty paper clip removal, apply here…).

Innovative examples of the variety of paper fasteners which preceded the availability of staplers (examples from the Donagh MacDonagh Collection, National Folklore Collection, UCD)

While the handwriting was almost always very nicely executed, there are many examples of people apologising for any spelling mistakes. An offer to correct same was taken up very assiduously in this example:

Donagh MacDonagh Collection, National Folklore Collection, UCD

This collection is a treasure trove on many levels, but chiefly of course for the ballads themselves. According to Bridget Hourican in The Dictionary of Irish Biography “This popular programme inspired the later important archival recordings of Seán Mac Réamoinn and Ciarán Mac Mathúna”. Like traditional stories, ballads were sometimes only passed on orally. Therefore we owe a debt to the likes of Donagh MacDonagh, and his son Niall MacDonagh whose website Irish Born Man gives digital links to hundreds of lyrics and many of Donagh’s own works, like his poem The Hungry Grass, and this wryly humorous short story All the Sweet Buttermilk. For the rich visual and tangible experience of the collection, you are most welcome to make an appointment to visit the NFC.

This blog was written by Brenda Ryan, Library Assistant, National Folklore Collection UCD

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Other Sources / Further Reading:

Archives:

UCD Archives –  RTÉ Radio Talk Scripts in English

Irish Newspaper Archives

Books: 

Forty Years of Irish Broadcasting by Maurice Gorham, 1967 (available in UCD Library).

Online:

Wikipedia: Thomas MacDonagh

WikiTree

Encyclopedia Britannica

Ricorso.net Donagh MacDonagh

Find A Grave

Playography Ireland

National Library of Ireland: Letters written by Thomas MacDonagh, 32 Upper Baggot Street to Donagh MacDonagh, addressed care of Muriel MacDonagh, on the occasion of his birth and on the day he was one month old. 22 Nov and 22 Dec 1912; contained in Thomas MacDonagh Family Papers held in the National Library of Ireland [NLI] as as MS 44,318-MS 44,345] https://catalogue.nli.ie/Collection/vtls000260093

TheIrishStory.com – Today in Irish History, 9 July 1917: The Death of Muriel MacDonagh today-in-irish-history-9-july-1917-the-death-of-muriel-macdonagh/