Gary Owen: A Song History

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"Gary Owen," also spelled "Garryowen" or "Garry Owen," is a 6/8 jig that also does duty as a quickstep. The Traditional Tune Archive regards the title as unmistakably Irish but says the tune's provenance is unknown. The name belongs to Garryowen, then on the outskirts of Limerick, and the Archive connects the song to the well-off young rowdies who gathered there around 1770 to 1780.[1] Which source holds the tune first is not settled. The Archive notes a northern English version in the manuscript collection of James Biggins of Leeds, dated 1779. It also reports two rival claims for the first printing: the Fleischmann anthology points to Edward Light's harp-lute tutor, published in London around 1785 under the title "Cory Owen," while Samuel Bayard named James Aird's collection, where the tune is called "Auld Bessy" (the Archive dates Aird's volume to both 1787 and about 1789).[1] Thomas Moore later used the air for "We may roam thro' this world" in his Irish Melodies.[2]

Frederic Remington painting of a line of US cavalrymen galloping across a dry grassy plain

Frederic Remington, On the Southern Plains, oil on canvas, 1907. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its US cavalry; the 7th Cavalry adopted the tune, but the painting has no direct connection to it.

The tune had a long military career. It served as the regimental march of the Royal Irish Regiment, although the Archive cautions that its adoption may be later than the regiment's founding in 1684. In the United States, Irish immigrant units marched to it, among them the New York City militia unit organized in 1851 that became famous as the "Fighting 69th."[1] The 7th Cavalry, formed in 1866, made "Garryowen" its official marching song.[3] Accounts differ on how it got there. A story drawn from the regimental history has Custer hearing Irish troopers sing it as a drinking song and the regiment adopting it soon after he reached Fort Riley, Kansas.[1][4] The 1st Cavalry Division Association also says Captain Myles Keogh and other Irish officers were believed to have brought it in.[4] A Dictionary of Irish Biography researcher writes that Keogh was "apparently responsible" for the tune's arrival,[5] and True West calls the Keogh story a legend.[6] The tune stayed with the cavalry long after the frontier era. It was heard in John Ford's western The Searchers and became the official song of the 1st Cavalry Division in 1981.[1]

Away from the parade ground, "Garryowen" remained a dance tune. The Archive cites Lettie Osborn's observation that it was a regular at Orange County, New York, country dances in the 1930s. It also records the tune's use for a step in English North-West morris, and notes that Micho Russell of Doolin, County Clare, described it as an old jig played for the plain set. Early recordings include a 1919 cylinder by the piper Patsy Touhey, who paired it with "Fermoy Lasses."[1]

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Sources

  1. Traditional Tune Archive: "Annotation:Garryowen".
  2. Library Ireland: "We may roam thro' this world. Air: Garryowen - Irish Melodies".
  3. National Park Service, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument: "7th Cavalry".
  4. 1st Cavalry Division Association: "Garryowen - Regimental Song".
  5. History Ireland: "Little Big (Irish)man".
  6. True West Magazine: "A Song for the Good Times".