Young Roddy McCorley: A Song History

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"Young Roddy McCorley" remembers Roddy (Roger) McCorley of Duneane parish in County Antrim, who was hanged at Toomebridge on 28 February 1800.[1] He may have been among a group of Duneane Defenders who joined the United Irishmen in June 1798, and he was later arrested by yeomanry, court-martialled at Ballymena and sentenced to death.[1] His body lay under the road at the end of the bridge until workmen uncovered it in 1852, after which it was reburied in Duneane graveyard.[1] The Dictionary of Irish Biography judges that he was apparently not a significant figure in the rising, and that his lasting fame comes chiefly from two ballads.[1]

Wooden side drum with rope tensioning and red, white and blue painted hoops, with two drumsticks

Side Drum, Dutch, wood, skin and cord, 18th century. Shown for the song's march tune; it has no connection to McCorley.

The older ballad, made soon after his death, mixes local narrative with passages presented as McCorley's own words.[1] The second is a poem by Ethna Carbery, the pen name of Anna MacManus (née Johnston), and sources differ on its date: the Dictionary of Irish Biography calls it late nineteenth century, the 1798 Rebellion Centre gives 1890, and the Traditional Tune Archive links it to the 1898 centenary of the rising.[1][2][3] Carbery died on 2 April 1902, and the poem appears as "Rody M'Corley" in The Four Winds of Eirinn, the collection of her verse issued after her death.[2][4] The Dictionary of Irish Biography finds in it "stock romantic nationalist imagery," and observes that both McCorley songs have become much-recorded staples of Irish traditional music.[1] Its march tune is traditional and also carries "Sean South of Garryowen," and the Traditional Tune Archive names the Clancy Brothers and the Kingston Trio among the groups who made it widely known.[2]

Gail L. Van Amberg arranges it in her MaxDAD Songbook, written for the five-string MaxDAD mountain dulcimer tuned DADAD, published by Fingers Of Steel.[5]

Our book that contains the song "Young Roddy McCorley"

Sources

  1. Dictionary of Irish Biography: "McCorley, Roddy (Roger)".
  2. The Traditional Tune Archive: "Roddy McCorley".
  3. 1798 Rebellion Centre: "1798 Ballads & Poems".
  4. A Celebration of Women Writers (University of Pennsylvania): "The Four Winds of Eirinn".
  5. Fingers Of Steel: "Gail L. Van Amberg, MaxDAD Songbook".
  6. Image: Side Drum, Dutch, wood, skin and cord, 18th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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