Without doubt it is a fine song, and the air to which it is generally
sung is a noble one. A distinguished Irish poet tells me he is of
opinion that "what will be universally taken up as the Irish National
Anthem has never yet been written." My friend may be right, but let us
see what claim "O'Donnell Aboo!'"--song or air--has upon us for adoption
as our National Anthem.

To do this I must go back in my narrative to the time when I made the
acquaintance of Mr. Michael Joseph McCann, its author. This was a few
years before "God Save Ireland" was written, and over twenty years after
"O'Donnell Aboo!" appeared in the "Nation."

A party of young Irishmen from Liverpool engaged the Rotunda, Dublin,
for a week. They called themselves the "Emerald Minstrels," and gave an
entertainment--"Terence's Fireside; or the Irish Peasant at Home." I was
one of the minstrels. The entertainment consisted of Irish national
songs and harmonized choruses, interspersed with stories such as might
be told around an Irish fireside. There was a sketch at the finish,
winding up with a jig.

At my suggestion, one of the pieces in our programme was "O'Donnell
Aboo!" which first appeared in the "Nation" of January 28th, 1843, under
the title of "The Clan-Connell War Song--A.D. 1597," the air to which it
was to be sung being given as "Roderigh Vich Alpine dhu," This was the
name of the boat song commencing "Hail to the Chief," from Sir Walter
Scott's poem of "The Lady of the Lake." This was published in 1810, and
set to music for three voices soon afterwards by Count Joseph Mazzinghi,
a distinguished composer of Italian extraction, born in London.

As "Roderigh Vich Alpine" was the air given by Mr. McCann himself as