Having read some of the ideas of tune titles and identities, this is what I
know about the tunes in question.
'Lady Athenry' is the title given to
(a) a planxty atributed to O Carolan to mark her wedding in 1699
(b) A strathspay by Neil Gow recorded in the Caledonian companion.
(c) a lament on the death of... sometimes atrib. to O Carolan but most
certainly not.
George Brabazon
(a) 2 melodies atrib. O Carolan...1 in jig time, 2 in duple time. melody
used as a song tune...most famous lyrics dating from jacobite rebelion &
celebrating the escape of Flora McDonald and Charles Stuart, disguised as
her maid (hence twae bonnie maidens)
(b) a fiddle tune...slow air (far too chromatic to be a harp tune) in
Dylans Celtic companion (1806)
(c)Scoodlums printed a version of Princess Augusta under this title...there
are many similarities. (1950's!!!)
The Brabazons were a mjor land owning family who provided a large part of
the local judicial system and many army officers.
On the subject of Athenry, Kyle wrote;
Yes, it is indeed ATHENRY (pronounced ath-en-RI, long-I and stress on
the last syllable). Athenry is a small village just outside of
Galway. There are a few songs that feature it in the title or the
lyrics; 'Fields of Athenry' is one notable ballad about a couple
parted amid the backdrop of Cromwellian oppression; the words are
quite stirring and worth looking up if you haven't heard it.
'The Fields of Athenry' is actually a lot more recent than that. The lyrics
contain the reference
"'Gainst the famine and the crown,
I rebelled, they ran me down..."
The famine occured in 1845\6 and during the Cromwellian era(1640's), the
crown didn't exist...well, it existed but there wasn't a head to put it
on...well, not one attached to a body anyway! The song seems to date from
the 1880's when it appears on a ballad sheet under the title 'The fields of
Athenry, a new song'.The melody does not appear in any of the early
colletions that I have come across and the harmonic structure of the tune
suports a more recent composition.
Be happy,
Mike.