ballads

ballads. The ballad tradition in Ireland extends back at least to the closing decade of the 16th century, but its history in modern Ireland is more commonly associated with the widespread publication of ballad sheets and chapbooks from the middle of the 18th century onwards. In the period 1780–1900, many of these publications were directly related to political developments, and street ballads in particular can be regarded as a running commentary on Irish political life. By the late 1790s, collections of ballad texts were commonplace, most of them explicitly associated with revolution and nationalist or patriotic sentiment. The events of 1798 were to become a standard trope in the ballad repertory. Emmet, Tone, O'Connell, and Parnell were frequently eulogized. In the 19th century, the ballads of Young Ireland (published in the Nation and separately as The Spirit of the Nation (1843, 1845)) not only enshrined the doctrinaire nationalism of Davis and his peers: they also demonstrably fomented Irish political opinion. The appropriation of the ballad tradition by political movements led to a more literary strain of text, in which Ireland's personification as a young or old woman emulated the conventions of bardic poetry. A more violent strain of balladry was fostered by the United Irishman (1848– ) and by the songs published in the Fenian weekly, the Irish People (1863–5). From the middle of the 19th century onwards, a proliferation of ballad collections, some with music, was published in Ireland and the United States.

Although many ballads were set to newly composed airs, the provenance of the music for the most part is obscure. Thomas Moore's Irish Melodies (1808–34) were adapted on occasion, as were songs taken from opera.

The extent to which contemporary political ballads inspired by the Northern Ireland conflict were proscribed by the British and Irish media awaits research.

Bibliography

Shields, Hugh , Narrative Singing in Ireland (1993)
Zimmerman, Georges‐Denis , Songs of Irish Rebellion (1967)

Harry White